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Florida voting machines software flaw prevents audit Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/8924107.htm http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/8924107.htm Posted on Tue, Jun. 15, 2004 As election nears, bug threatens ballot audit OUR OPINION: TO AVOID ANOTHER FIASCO, STOP BICKERING AND FIX THE PROBLEM There is more than a little finger-pointing in the wake of a computer-software glitch that raises doubt about the ability of elections officials to accurately audit all the votes cast in an election. Nerves are on edge at elections offices in Tallahassee, in South Florida and at the headquarters of Elections Systems & Software, the Omaha company whose computers will tally votes across Florida in this year's presidential elections. To be sure, there are ample reasons for anxiety. Primary elections are less than three months away, for starters. And recent revelations about a software flaw that makes it difficult to audit the votes cast in an election have elections officials questioning communication lapses, the timing of the discovery, who is responsible and other issues. Work for solution With primary elections only weeks away, the public would be better served if state and local elections officials would focus their energies on working collaboratively with each other and the computer vendor to find a fix that ensures an accurate audit. Once that issue is resolved, officials should review their own actions and assumptions that may have contributed to the problem. Thus far, officials at ES&S have assured elections supervisors that they've developed corrections for a flaw that sometimes results in a failure of the touch-screen machines to consistently record an ''event log'' of voting activity when operators attempt to reproduce what happened during the election. It should be noted that the glitch affects the ability to conduct an accurate audit of votes cast -- not the actual vote count. Nevertheless, the flaw is serious and should be handled as a top priority. Mistakes and snafus in the 2000 presidential election cost hundreds of South Florida and state residents their votes. As a result, civic groups, the NAACP and some state lawmakers have sued and demanded that Florida create a paper trail of votes cast in order to validate the accuracy of the vote tally on the new electronic equipment. New problems Elections officials have said that paper validation is too costly and isn't necessary. However, the software glitch should be seen as a reminder that electronic voting invariably introduces unexpected new risks -- including possible fraud and deliberate tampering -- in ways that weren't possible with the old punch-card ballots. The closeness of the last election and problems with so-called ''pregnant'' and ''hanging'' chads endemic to the punch-card machinery put Florida in an embarrassing national spotlight for ineptness. Avoiding a repeat experience requires that elections officials do everything possible to identify and fix any and all potential glitches. There will be ample time later to determine how well officials handled the shift to electronic voting, what problems should have been anticipated, what standards and procedures they should have adopted. For now, the top priority must be to fix the software glitch before the August 31 primary.

31 mistakes Broward reporting glitch California drops diebold machines { May 1 2004 } Dallas miscounted Electronic invitation trouble Failed detect faults { February 3 1999 } Florida voting machines software flaw prevents audit Hawaii venezuela { June 7 2000 } Lost record of 02 votes in miami dade { July 28 2004 } Montgomery alabama New vote machines No paper trail { August 5 2002 } Real scandal Register doubts press here { May 15 2003 } Reno sues State panel says diebold glitches tainted primary { April 23 2004 } Voter machine meltdowns Files Listed: 17

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