Diebold Admits Ohio Machines May Lose Votes

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Premier Election Solutions (a subsidiary of Diebold) has acknowledged a flaw that causes the systems to lose votes. It cannot be patched before the election and the machines are used in half of Ohio's counties, but they are issuing guidelines for avoiding the problem that presumably contain a work-around. While Diebold initially blamed anti-virus software for the glitch, they have now discovered that the bug was their own fault for not recording votes to memory when the cards are uploaded in 'certain circumstances' — something their initial analysis missed. It would be nice to hope that Ohio poll workers would be tech-savvy enough to make this a non-issue, but they had poll worker shortages last year and might need tech-savvy people to volunteer."

Open Voting

It is at this point that I would normally point people to the Open Voting Consortium [openvoting.org], but unless I'm missing something, the project stalled some time back in 2006 [sourceforge.net]. Yet they're still taking donations...

Am I missing something or is it time for a fork? Because I think we definitely need an open, easily verifiable voting system.

I don't even think it needs to be a LiveCD as the current project seems to have. What is so difficult about making a paper trail?

Re:Open Voting

I'd point people to take it up with their representatives and other relevant politicians or even picketing to bring attention their cause. Unfortunately the politicians are in on it and the picketing is now only permitted in "Free Speech Zones" and may end you up in jail after crooked judges who still sit on the bench after multiple infractions eliminating due process [lazylightning.org] agree with the government that you are a terrorist.

So, just suck it up and let the assholes win while we all fucking suffer. Global Warming is a fucking threat? Please.

Re:Open Voting

Yep, if I am not mistaken, the right to bear arms is in the Bill of Rights so that the government will not be able to silence the will of the people and so that if the government gets screwy, we can have another revolution.

Re:Open Voting

Well the only real threat of an armed rebellion is when enough people are unhappy about enough things that they're willing to risk dying. The 2nd amendment exists for that cause. One person is a criminal, 10 people are a conspiracy, thousands is a revolt.

I personally think it's fixable with less extreme measures, but it may entail a bit more suffering before enough people have visibility that there's a problem.

Most of the country hasn't seen electronic voting machines (yet). Wait till we stand in line and watch them crash, or behave strangely, or visibly ignore input. Wait till the popular candidate mysteriously loses. No one needs to die for this, it just needs to APPEAR to fail one time.

Re:Open Voting

That's not what's meant by "voter verifiable". The printed slip shows that you voted and for whom, but you put the slip into an actual ballot before you leave the station. That way, if the electronic result is questioned, the ballots can be counted by hand.

Obviously, we don't want to go back before an anonymous ballot system and the corruption that happened back then.

Pen and Paper

I recommend returning to Pen and Paper voting, and then using those paper ballots to vote out the officials who had paid to bring in these obviously inferior devices for wasting tax payer dollars.

Blown way out of proportion

Get over it folks! It will only drop votes for Democrats. So clearly this is an isolated bug.

Proud?

How much more do we, Americans, have to take before we take action?

They might as well have said, "Admittedly, we failed at not only our most important task, but our only task: Preserve and Continue Democracy."

Personally, I protest weekly in my town.. but when will we get riots in the streets.. the ones you'd expect from those good ol' freedom loving Americans? Are they too busy listening to the "proud to be an american" song to actually be an american? It's not just a status, it's not juts a privilage, it's a responsibility.

I'm dissapointed that this is on the front page of slashdot, and tomorrow, will be off the front page of slashdot, and that's all the waves it will create. I'm not proud, I'm ashamed of my country.

I stopped going to church because the people who went were too busy feeling good going to church to actually do good things.

LEAKED: Source code of innocent bug

Turns out Diebold accidentally leaked a snippet of their C# source code that shows the conditions that the machines may fail to register votes:

if(vote.Party == "Democrat" && democratvotes % 3)
democratvotes++;

Oopsie!

Re:LEAKED: Source code of innocent bug

Only on Slashdot would you not only get a joke written in C#, but also multiple replies complaining that it's not technically sound.

The circumstances?

Don't blame me, I voted for a';DROP TABLE users; SELECT * FROM data WHERE name LIKE '%.

Re:The circumstances?

Well geez, you could at least have inserted yourself as the winning candidate.

*sigh* Supervillainy doesn't have the same draw it used to...

Re:The circumstances?

Oh man, you missed a prime opportunity for a Little Bobby Tables reference.

http://xkcd.com/327/ [xkcd.com]

Tea Party redux

but they had poll worker shortages last year and might need tech-savvy people to volunteer.

Want to really help? "Accidentally" run over the crate of voting machines, or allow it to fall off a bridge into a deep river. Do democracy a favor and destroy these abominations, you tech-savvy butterfingers!

Re:Tea Party redux

Want to really help? "Accidentally" run over the crate of voting machines, or allow it to fall off a bridge into a deep river. Do democracy a favor and destroy these abominations, you tech-savvy butterfingers!

Ahem... before the election.

Re:Tea Party redux

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Serves: 1 precinct

Things you will need:
at least one day off work
money for fines
a destructive device (something small, like a ball-peen hammer, is recommended)

1. Go to the polls as early as possible. Try to be one the the first voters.
2. Ensure that the polling place has enough reserve paper ballots on hand, or can easily obtain them in time.
3. Disable the polling machines. One or two well-placed hits from a hammer should do.
        Act quickly to get them all before you are stopped.
4. Cooperate with any police officers who arrive. You may be treated roughly. Do not put up a fight at this point.
        You will almost certainly go to jail for some time, from hours to days, depending on circumstances.
5. If there is any media present, let them know what you did and *why* you did it.
        Try not to come off as a raving loony. Practice in front of a mirror is recommended.

why do these machines remain certified?

Please, someone give me a reasonable explanation as to why these machines remained certified for the last 8 years despite all this crap?

Re:why do these machines remain certified?

Corruption.

(Was that obvious?)

Re:why do these machines remain certified?

It has to be corruption. I mean, damn, the cheapest shareware author from the early 90's would be ashamed to ship something this spectacularly screwed up. It's got to do ONE simple, straight forward job. There are NO corner cases. There are NO race conditions. There is NO need for parallel execution. It is the simplest transactional system that one anyone could devise. And yet, it DROPS DATA !?! Get the F*** outta here!!

This cannot be explained by incompetence or stupidity. The ONLY explanation is outright corruption.

Re:why do these machines remain certified?

It's got to do ONE simple, straight forward job. There are NO corner cases. There are NO race conditions. There is NO need for parallel execution. It is the simplest transactional system that one anyone could devise.

Playing Devil's Advocate here, but wouldn't a voting machine be a perfect example for a possible race condition?

Scenario: Both Voter 1 and Voter 2 choose Obama.
Vote machine 1 reads current number of votes: 10
Vote machine 2 reads current number of votes: 10
Voter 1 and Voter 2 both cast their ballots for Obama simultaneously.
Vote machine 1 writes new vote tally for Obama: 11.
Vote machine 1 writes new vote tally for Obama: 11.

So, instead of receiving 2 votes, Obama is only credited for 1.

I'm just saying, almost ANYTHING can be explained by incompetence or stupidity.

But, my vote's with you. Corruption.

Re:why do these machines remain certified?

Your vote machine should never EVER be keeping a running tally. Your vote machine should be keeping a line-item list of votes cast.

Or, put another way, your voting machine should only ever be making, to your vote record table, INSERT statements. Never a SELECT, and most certainly never an UPDATE or DELETE.

Re:why do these machines remain certified?

diebold assured us that there were no problem..

a position they've now changed and will not be punished for.

Ohio requires partisan poll workers

I'd be more than happy to be a poll worker (I'd even forfeit my salary to be one), except for the simple fact that one has to be a registered Democrat or Republican to be a poll worker in Ohio, which requires a statement made under penalty of election falsification (a felony) that you do indeed agree with the principles of the party and desire to be affiliated with them.

As I do not support the principles of either major party nor do I wish to be affiliated with either one, I cannot be a poll worker unless I commit a felony (which would probably bar me from being a poll worker).

Now, I'm obviously going a bit overboard here. No one really cares if you lie about your partisan identification. Republicans crossed over like crazy in the primary to vote for Clinton, but no one ever got arrested for it. In any case, I take such oaths seriously, so I can't be a poll worker.

Certain Circumstances

While Diebold initially blamed anti-virus software for the glitch, they have now discovered that the bug was their own fault for not recording votes to memory when the cards are uploaded in 'certain circumstances'

"Certain circumstances" -- a.k.a "voting"

Re:"Flaw" or

That was one of the links in the summary....

In the what?