| Truth, Lies, & Politics When is a coincidence too much of a coincidence to be one? |
Is this your State? Will Your Vote Count? SysTest Labs: Why it matters to you as a voter, as a conpiracy. |
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| Does Your Vote Count? If your voting system is one of these, SysTest Labs may have tested your system using the same undocumented test methods and unqualified/untrained testers that led to its suspension by the National Institute of Standards and Technology: Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Diebold Election Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems, Barden Technologies, Danaher Controls, Dominion Voting Systems, Hart InterCivic, Inspire Voting Systems, MicroVote, NEDAP, Populex Corporation, SmartMatic, Unisyn, Vote Here, Wintergreen Research. In other words, your voting machines may be certified and operating under a false sense of security. If you vote on ES&S iVotronics touch-screen voting machines and live in one of these states, your vote may not have counted in 2002, 2004, or 2006. And your vote may not count this November. Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas. Considering the multiple tiers of professional evaluations and testing of our voting machines, from the vendor’s own quality assurance processes to the independent testing authorities, the Secretary of State certification process, the County Election Supervisor and then to the final preparation for each election, it is difficult to fathom that so many of the same computer failures rear up election after election. Will your vote count? As the optical ballot scanner sucking in my ballot groaned and chattered this year, I wondered if my vote will count this election. Clearly as shown in ES&S iVotronic Error Highlights at the end of this report, in the states and elections documented votes were not counted. However, there’s another aspect to the SysTest Labs’ revelation, in that it adds one more company and another politician to the growing list of hands-on players named in Conspiracy, coincidence, or skullduggery. SysTest Labs is the independent testing authority that led to the 2002 ES&S iVotronics touch-screen certification in Florida and other states. However, the iVotronics failed in several states and in several elections, including Florida’s 2006 election. At least 89K votes were lost statewide and 18K votes were lost in Sarasota’s contested Congressional District 13 race. GAO Sarasota D-13: Blood on the floor, bullet in the head, where did that smoking gun go? Vern Buchanan “won” 2006’s District 13 race by 369 votes against Christine Jennings. When the race was contested, Buchanan hired SysTest Labs during the post-election testing in which the iVotronics were given a “clean bill of health,” adding “credence” to Buchanan’s win. (1) But the iVotronics weren’t clean and they weren’t given a clean bill of health. After citing several bad practice faults against Florida’s Secretary of State, Sarasota’s Election Supervisor, and ES&S, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation concluded with an inconclusive verdict of insufficient evidence following a final touch-screen hardware test of two working machines. While the GAO reports make no reference to SysTest Labs directly, an “independent testing authority” is references several times. (2) And Buchanan? Buchanan’s funneled nearly $1.25 million of his own cash into his campaign, money he earned at least in part by bilking his customers, if you believe the lawsuits filed against him. Of course Buchanan denies the lawsuits that charge Buchanan and his car dealerships of defrauding automakers and consumers, and of violating campaign finance laws. As for conspiracies, one company’s lapse in quality and another politician’s dubious win do not remotely rise to the level of conspiracy or even mischief. However as the list of questionable circumstances grows while continuing to roil around the common ES&S core, it is worth noting. So to the growing band of shady hands-on players that includes George W. Bush, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Michael Connell, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, Florida Secretary of State Sandra Mortham, U.S. Representative Tom Feeney, and ES&S, add SysTest Labs and Rep. Vern Buchanan. ES&S iVotronic Error Highlights The following summary highlights some of ES&S iVotronic failures during the past several elections. Except where noted, the information was pulled and consolidated from VotersUnite.org’s Malfunctions and Miscounts report. The Malfunctions report is well referencing in its more user-friendly format on VotersUnite, especially if your state is not included on this list and your voting system is one of the other voting systems tested by SysTest Labs. Arkansas, 2006. (1) Voting machine malfunctions in three counties affecting 10,000 voters. (2) Optical scanners jammed, touch screens ran out of paper, and there weren't enough back-up paper ballots at the polls. (3) ES&S election software malfunctions, and ES&S programmed the ballots incorrectly. 2000. More than two dozen voters reported that the Touch screens register votes incorrectly, displaying the wrong choice. Indiana, 2004 – four counties. ES&S installed an uncertified version of firmware in the iVotronics in four counties. The certified version didn't tabulate the votes correctly. Indiana. 2004. (1) 50,000 voters eliminated when the electronic voting machines reported 300 voters in every precinct. (2) 2004. Paperless iVotronic voting machines recorded phantomballots, that is more ballots than the number of voters signing in to vote. At others, there werefewer ballots than voters. North Carolina. 2004. Touch screen register incorrectly on the touch screen. 2002. Machines lost 436 ballots in early voting. Pennsylvania. 2006. Unofficial tallies differ by nearly 6,000 votes from official ballot counts. South Carolina. 2006. Problems occurred in 13 precincts, machines locking up, drained batteries and incorrect closing procedures. 2005. Initial results for the County Council seat showed 2440 phantom votes — 3208 votes, 768 voters. The corrected results overturned the Democratic primary. 2004. Officials can't retrieve 200 electronic votes from a malfunctioning iVotronic electronic voting machine. Texas. 2004. Touch screens register votes incorrectly on the screen. 2002. A ballot programming error tallies 18 results incorrectly; Machines register incorrect choices on the screen. Ohio. 2006. May 2 primary elections encountered many problems, including poor training and malfunctioning equipment. 2004. 20 to 30 machines registered votes for the wrong candidate. About a dozen machines needed to be reset because they essentially froze. Florida, 2006. 89K votes missing on ES&S touchscreens in the Attorney General race. (This is a calculated number based on information provided by Florida Fair Elections Coalition: ES&S touchscreens recorded an undervote rate of 8.65%, while ES&S Optical Scanner recorded an undervote of 3.04%; Diebold Optical Scanner 2.272%, and Sequoia touchscreen 3.0%.) Miami-Dade, Florida, 2005. Computer error failed to count votes during the March 8 special election. 2004. (1) Both phantom votes and lost votes in the November election. The number of voters reported by election workers didn't match the number of ballots cast in 260 (35%) of Miami-Dade's 749 polling places. Some showed more votes than voters ("phantom votes"); others showed significantly more voters than ballots cast. (2) Voters filed 14,253 complaint forms about election-day problems. (3) Audit log failed to account for 162 ballots cast. (4) The central database machines used to tabulate votes are incapable of holding all the audit data at once. 2002. 8.2% of the votes were "lost" in 31 problem precincts. Significantly more votes were lost in predominantly black areas; The order of the order of candidates' names were changes as results were computed, initially showing wins for two candidates who actually lost the election. Florida, Broward County. 2002. A software error caused 103,222 (22%) votes cast on ES&S iVotronic paperless voting machines not to be counted in the initial tally; Touch screens register votes incorrectly. Machines register votes for opponents instead of the candidate selected; Machines showed 134 blank ballots. The winning margin was 12 votes. 2005. One of the two items on the March 8 ballot failed to appear on the screen for many of the voters who participated in the Parallel Election Project. Florida, Sarasota County. 2006. 18K votes missing in an undervote rate of 12.92%. 2004. 189 votes were never counted. References: 1. Bradenton Herald, Duane Marsteller, “Buchanan Funds Campaign Again,” The Herald, 10/31/08 Bradenton Herald, Duane Marsteller, “Feds move to suspend company that certified electronic voting machines that Sarasota County used in contested 2006,” 10/30/08 2. GAO Elections: Results of GAO’s Testing of Voting Systems Used in Sarasota County in Florida’s 13th Congressional District:
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/08425t.pdf http://www.gao.gov/new.items/071167t.pdf
. . Not if, but when and how often.
Other sources: http://denver.bizjournals.com/gen/company.html? gcode=804DE95CAF85404BBA17B193A2315592 http://denver.bizjournals.com/gen/company.html? gcode=804DE95CAF85404BBA17B193A2315592§ion=company_articles |
Fiction Stops Here |
What does SysTest Labs have to do with you and why does it matter? If you vote, SysTest Labs may be at least partially responsible for ensuring your vote counts … or not. Consider SysTest Labs as the judge who in effect “blesses” your voting systems as pure from bugs and other nasty defects. They’re hired to serve as independent, impartial quality test experts in an effort to protect you from shoddy manufacturers and slapdash elections. In a sense they serve as a protective buffer between a voting machine manufacturer and your state’s certification of quality voting machines that count your vote every time. But that didn’t happen and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission notified SysTest Labs that its accreditation for testing voting systems will be suspended. SysTest Labs accreditation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology has already been suspended. |
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