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Sequoia's Optical Scan Vote Counting Machines Giving Different Results Every Time
from the well-that's-reassuring dept
Remember the election mess in Palm Beach, Florida from last month? The one where votes seemed to be randomly disappearing, and each recount came up with different results? Originally the blame was put on the fact that different scanning machines from e-voting firm Sequoia, would somehow count the votes differently. That seemed scary enough, and Sequoia protested, insisting that it was all human error. However, when human errors happen every time the machines are used, it's time to suggest that the real problem is with the machines.
Wired is running a long, and somewhat scary, report about the ongoing situation in Palm Beach, where every time the votes are counted, a different vote count comes out. A test was set up by the local newspaper to scan a sampling of ballots, and every time the results of those tests were different -- sometimes in extreme ways. Quite often, the machines seemed to count perfectly marked ballots as invalid, while at other times it accepted votes from invalid ballots. In other words, the machines basically don't work. And we're relying on them in many areas for the election coming up in a month. Isn't that comforting?
Wired is running a long, and somewhat scary, report about the ongoing situation in Palm Beach, where every time the votes are counted, a different vote count comes out. A test was set up by the local newspaper to scan a sampling of ballots, and every time the results of those tests were different -- sometimes in extreme ways. Quite often, the machines seemed to count perfectly marked ballots as invalid, while at other times it accepted votes from invalid ballots. In other words, the machines basically don't work. And we're relying on them in many areas for the election coming up in a month. Isn't that comforting?
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Damn...
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Just a small 'technicality'.
I mean, seriously, how hard it is to make a program to tally something?
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lrn2rdgud
The optical scanner has problems reading valid ballots AS WELL AS problems accepting invalid ballots as valid. AFATAIC the equipment is tallying the results after the optical scan correctly.
If we're having this much trouble in the optical scanning of ballots, it makes me wonder if my uni tests are properly scanned!
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Pentium?
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We are all screwed
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Re:
While the ACORN scandal deserves intense scrutiny, so does this. The nearly criminal handling of the extreme failures by Sequoia should be making national headlines right along side the election. But because so many people so high up have screwed up, there is no real accountability. Many areas will be voting on these flawed pieces of crap that actually have a very significant chance of adversely affecting the election, and very few people will actually be aware.
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Makes me wonder about those grade school tests....
There is one answer....MONEY and who can get more of it.
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Re:
Why can't we just go back to punch cards?
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Re: Re:
You fail to remember the hanging chads and "dents" on ballots that were involved in the 2000 election.
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Bailout Bill
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Oh no!
For those who don't know, she was bugged by intel officers who leaked the tapes to media. "Will I still lead by one million?" she said. The Election commissioner on the other end replied, "We will try, ma'm". That was one of about fifteen calls she made.
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I thought DIEBOLD was cheating?
VOTE McCain 2008 - Just incase the machines are actually working this time!
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What if the banks worked that way .... oh wait ... maybe they do!
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"we want to stop gays from getting married." It is pointless to explain to you why this position is wrong-headed and I will never be able to change your mind but from one heterosexual to another, you are truly a bad person. I know you'll just shrug it off and espouse more hateful crap but I just wanted you to know that there is one more person in the world that KNOWS you're kinda evil. So go on, don't think about it, don't think that maybe you're been self-righteous or that you're trying to dictate how people, that are not you, should live. Tell everyone why those d*mn gays should all stop wanting 'special rights'. It wouldn't hurt if you threw in a little 'god hates fags' rhetoric.
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The Technology is Sound
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What are you looking at?
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Re: lrn2rdgud
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It's as simple as 1,2,3
No matter how many votes Obama gets, McCain will get more using the rigged machines. They have a "built in racism factor." Similar to the Bushmatics that Gored Al.
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Re:
How can you say something like that when McCain walks onstage today and addresses the Masses as
"My fellow Prisoners"?
Hah! They are now sourcing from Tina Fey, and Loren Michaels! How much longer before there's a remake of the timeless Wolves Ad of 2004?
The wheels have fallen off of the straight talk express.
Prisoners? Bah!
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Thoughts and considerations
Being a College Teaching Aide years ago with some time on my hands, I decided to play around with one of the "academic" versions of these machines, manufactured by ScanTron and was quite surprised at the accuracy-- a small pin-sized pencil dot made with 7mm mechanical pencil would be picked up by one of these machines.
This runs absolutely opposite of the accepted reliability in academia of these machines. But if ScanTron can make these machines so reliable, how can we have 3rd parties doing it and failing so badly?
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Re: Bailout Bill
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Re: I thought DIEBOLD was cheating?
I think that would be an Epic Win for you, and an epic FAIL for us.
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what I would REALLY like to know is how...
And the other thing, when will finally someone go to prison for vote tampering?
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Re: The Technology is Sound
Mind you - each gambling machine produces $$$ for its operator, while voting machines are brought out once every few years.
Seems to me that when there's money involved, in ATMs or gambling machines, everyone gets their shit together.
Perhaps if we charged $2 for every vote, then there would be some attention paid to security etc.
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