QUOTE
"By BRYAN CORBIN Courier & Press staff writer (812) 464-7449 or
corbinb@c...
November 19, 2004
Today, election officials will try to duplicate the computer malfunction
that locked up the screens of some electronic voting machines on Election Day.
The experiment is part of a larger process to diagnose causes of long lines
at Vanderburgh County polling places that resulted in a flurry of voter
complaints.
County Clerk Marsha Abell estimates approximately 150 mailed-in absentee
ballots were not counted because of handling errors, either by voters or by
a temporary Election Office employee who was terminated. The postelection
review, ordered by the Vanderburgh County Commissioners, continues today in
the county election office in Evansville's Civic Center.
Officials are looking for any discrepancy between the number of people who
signed in to vote at certain precincts Nov. 2 and the number of votes
actually cast. "We are going to try to pull 14 precincts and hand-count the
number of ballots the machine (had recorded as) cast in that precinct. We
are going to compare that to the poll book and see how accurate we are,"
Abell said. Vanderburgh County paid $2.9 million for the touch-screen
voting system. On a day of high voter turnout, 532 of the company's
iVotronic touch-screen voting machines were in use. Poll workers at some
precincts complained that computer screens locked up, halting the voting
process, at least temporarily.
The voting machines' manufacturer, Nebraska-based Election Systems &
Software or ES&S, is conducting a self-review. ES&S project manager Gary
Olson on Thursday downloaded the electronic votes still in the memory of
individual iVotronic machines, to compare to vote totals downloaded from
all machines after polls closed. Overseeing the laborious process with
Olson were Tammy Barnett, the Democratic Party's representative, and Tom
Massey, the Republican representative.
As they worked their way through 532 touch-screen units, Olson compiled a
printout that listed the times at which votes were cast on each machine. By
late Thursday afternoon, the printout was more than 1,200 pages thick. All
the data collected will be presented on CD to the county for further analysis.
After a vote is cast, the iVotronic machine is supposed to automatically
reset and a pollworker is to activate it for the next voter by inserting a
cartridge called a Personal Electronic Ballot.
Olson theorized that some pollworkers may have inserted the cartridge too
quickly, before the machine had reset from the previous voter, causing the
program to malfunction and the screen to freeze. Olson and Abell will test
that hypothesis on one machine at 9 a.m. today in the Election Office, and
videotape their experiment.
Meanwhile, eight election office employees worked nearby Thursday,
hand-counting approximately 72,000 names of voters who signed poll books
upon entering the precincts on Election Day.
The idea is to compare that total to the number of electronic ballots
counted. "In a perfect world, they would all match up; we know they will
not," Abell said. The difference, Abell believes, will be voters who tired
of waiting in line and left polling places without voting.
Abell confirmed, however, that an unknown number of mail-in absentee
ballots (she estimated about 150) could not be counted because of technical
violations involving missing signatures or initials, which the law requires
to deter fraud.
In some cases, voters mailing back ballots forgot to sign the outer
envelopes as required. In others, mail-in absentee ballots were not counted
because they lacked the necessary two sets of initials, one each from a
Republican and Democratic election worker.
Abell said that a Democratic election clerk, a temporary employee hired to
work for 30 days leading up to the election, caused the snafu. The employee
initialed absentee ballots but did not obtain the initials of her
Republican counterpart before mailing them out to voters. The employee was
terminated, Abell said.
Though ES&S's self-review is concluding today, the Vanderburgh County
Commissioners voted to support a request to pay $37,500 to a Denver company
to conduct an independent audit of the election. That company, SysTest
Labs, originally certified ES&S's iVotronic machines. Abell opposes such an
audit. The Audit continues
corbinb@c...
November 19, 2004
Today, election officials will try to duplicate the computer malfunction
that locked up the screens of some electronic voting machines on Election Day.
The experiment is part of a larger process to diagnose causes of long lines
at Vanderburgh County polling places that resulted in a flurry of voter
complaints.
County Clerk Marsha Abell estimates approximately 150 mailed-in absentee
ballots were not counted because of handling errors, either by voters or by
a temporary Election Office employee who was terminated. The postelection
review, ordered by the Vanderburgh County Commissioners, continues today in
the county election office in Evansville's Civic Center.
Officials are looking for any discrepancy between the number of people who
signed in to vote at certain precincts Nov. 2 and the number of votes
actually cast. "We are going to try to pull 14 precincts and hand-count the
number of ballots the machine (had recorded as) cast in that precinct. We
are going to compare that to the poll book and see how accurate we are,"
Abell said. Vanderburgh County paid $2.9 million for the touch-screen
voting system. On a day of high voter turnout, 532 of the company's
iVotronic touch-screen voting machines were in use. Poll workers at some
precincts complained that computer screens locked up, halting the voting
process, at least temporarily.
The voting machines' manufacturer, Nebraska-based Election Systems &
Software or ES&S, is conducting a self-review. ES&S project manager Gary
Olson on Thursday downloaded the electronic votes still in the memory of
individual iVotronic machines, to compare to vote totals downloaded from
all machines after polls closed. Overseeing the laborious process with
Olson were Tammy Barnett, the Democratic Party's representative, and Tom
Massey, the Republican representative.
As they worked their way through 532 touch-screen units, Olson compiled a
printout that listed the times at which votes were cast on each machine. By
late Thursday afternoon, the printout was more than 1,200 pages thick. All
the data collected will be presented on CD to the county for further analysis.
After a vote is cast, the iVotronic machine is supposed to automatically
reset and a pollworker is to activate it for the next voter by inserting a
cartridge called a Personal Electronic Ballot.
Olson theorized that some pollworkers may have inserted the cartridge too
quickly, before the machine had reset from the previous voter, causing the
program to malfunction and the screen to freeze. Olson and Abell will test
that hypothesis on one machine at 9 a.m. today in the Election Office, and
videotape their experiment.
Meanwhile, eight election office employees worked nearby Thursday,
hand-counting approximately 72,000 names of voters who signed poll books
upon entering the precincts on Election Day.
The idea is to compare that total to the number of electronic ballots
counted. "In a perfect world, they would all match up; we know they will
not," Abell said. The difference, Abell believes, will be voters who tired
of waiting in line and left polling places without voting.
Abell confirmed, however, that an unknown number of mail-in absentee
ballots (she estimated about 150) could not be counted because of technical
violations involving missing signatures or initials, which the law requires
to deter fraud.
In some cases, voters mailing back ballots forgot to sign the outer
envelopes as required. In others, mail-in absentee ballots were not counted
because they lacked the necessary two sets of initials, one each from a
Republican and Democratic election worker.
Abell said that a Democratic election clerk, a temporary employee hired to
work for 30 days leading up to the election, caused the snafu. The employee
initialed absentee ballots but did not obtain the initials of her
Republican counterpart before mailing them out to voters. The employee was
terminated, Abell said.
Though ES&S's self-review is concluding today, the Vanderburgh County
Commissioners voted to support a request to pay $37,500 to a Denver company
to conduct an independent audit of the election. That company, SysTest
Labs, originally certified ES&S's iVotronic machines. Abell opposes such an
audit. The Audit continues
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