Diebold machines fail in Alaska primary

When you hear the words "electronic voting machines" and "problems" in the same sentence, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to infer that our old friend Diebold is somehow involved. The latest chapter in the company's woeful history of security lapses and tampering accusations comes courtesy of Tuesday's primary election in the great state of Alaska, where several of Diebold's "high-tech" touchscreen units were unable to use their dial-up modems to upload voting results to the Division of Elections' central servers due to an inability to pick up dial-tones and "other problems." Apparently thirteen total precincts experienced the issues, forcing election workers to toil into the wee morning hours manually uploading their data and getting it to sync with the overall numbers. The Director of Elections, Whitney Brewster, attempted to reassure voters that the integrity of the process had not been compromised by pointing out that "just because they're not being uploaded doesn't mean they're not being recorded accurately." That's probably true, but with all the scrutiny and negative publicity surrounding the company, it's going to be hard to convince some folks that any election involving Diebolds's products is ever on the level.

[Via Slashdot]

[Jeff @ Aug 24th 2006 5:37PM]

Can someone please tell me how this company is still in business and why states keep buying their products?

[Dmills @ Aug 24th 2006 5:42PM]

"Can someone please tell me how this company is still in business and why states keep buying their products?"

Because some dumbfu*ks cant't figure out a butterfly ballot.

[Eric @ Aug 24th 2006 5:44PM]

Lowest bidder.

[DJ @ Aug 24th 2006 5:46PM]

The city that I live in in Wisconsin uses paper ballots, felt tip pens and optical scanners - been doing so for 20 years. The failure rate is under 2% and that's usually because someone tried to vote too many times for one race or across party lines. If the scanner fails, the ORIGINAL paper ballot is there for fallback. If the scanner can't read the ballot, it's destroyed and the voter tries it again. Very SIMPLE, very CHEAP and VERY, VERY STUPID VOTER PROOF!

[Jiggsaw @ Aug 24th 2006 5:46PM]

These machines are just a conspiracy by the big oil companies to register everyone's vote as for "the republican" regardless of what you press. This ensures "FOUR MORE YEARS" of Oil Royalty in the white house and yet more environmental laws unshackled.

When you have a president who has the worst approval rating of any president in history and yet he reacts to it with "I don't care about polls, or base my decisions on them" and his primary purpose is *supposed* to be carrying out the WILL of the people, then we have a problem, don't we.

[Elliot @ Aug 24th 2006 5:47PM]

Jeff: They're a very large company that has a big market in ATMs. Further, they're big campaign doners. For example, a quick search of the FEC's contribution database shows that they gave almost 200k to the Republican National State Election Committee in Ohio between 2000 and 2004. Of course, we know what happened in Ohio in 2004, care of Diebold machines...

[Sam @ Aug 24th 2006 5:47PM]

they already own them; most of them aren't new.

[jordan @ Aug 24th 2006 5:47PM]

we welcome our new Diebold overlords.

[LD @ Aug 24th 2006 5:50PM]

Does Diebold offer paper receipts yet? If not couldn't every single election that has any hiccup (which is any with Diebold machines) be legitimately challenged as there is no paper trail? How could Diebold convince anyone of the integrity of the votes if there is absolutely no way to track the votes via paper?

I believe the only real solution to electronic voting is open source software with a paper trail. It provides the most checks and balances that could be obtained.

[kbiel @ Aug 24th 2006 6:00PM]

Great. Another article to pleasure the Diebold conspiracy theorists. First, one, and only one, person made a "tampering accusation" and that without supporting evidence. But now it is taken as proof of the evil intentions of Diebold. Second, I'm sure none of you "Diebold/Republican cabal" mongers have ever had issues with your phone or your modem or both together, right?

Maybe phoning in the results are not a great idea, I don't know. But there is nothing in this article that points to Diebold as a bad actor. No results were lost, no election was fixed and nothing occurred that could not have occurred in your own home.

And for you "optical scanner" bigots, they may or may not be better, but I guess you didn't read the article or you missed this part: "One precinct’s optical scanner voting machine also could not connect by modem, Wilson said."

Gah, optical scanner machines must be evil and buggy and a scam to make you think your voting while the people who are really in charge, you know the ones in the smoke filled back rooms, put their boy (or girl) in office.

[egads @ Aug 24th 2006 6:01PM]

They were used in the last two presidential elections. Are you suggesting that our president might be illegitimate?

[kbiel @ Aug 24th 2006 6:10PM]

LD>>Does Diebold offer paper receipts yet? If not couldn't every single election that has any hiccup (which is any with Diebold machines) be legitimately challenged as there is no paper trail? How could Diebold convince anyone of the integrity of the votes if there is absolutely no way to track the votes via paper?

Yes, the Diebold machine that my county in Texas uses does keep a paper tape. There are several modes for reporting, but my county chooses to only print a zero report before the poles open and a final voter tally/candidate-election item tally after the poles close. How other counties and/or other states use the machine is entirely up to them.

LD>>I believe the only real solution to electronic voting is open source software with a paper trail. It provides the most checks and balances that could be obtained.

Having the software source out in the open isa good thing in my estimation, but it is not really an issue. To tamper with a machine, you need have physical access to it (or an election office would need to network the machines or have it answer its modem, which is stupidity beyond my imagination). The only people who are supposed to have physical access to the machines outside of voting hours are election officials; county elections boards, election judges, et cetera. So this all goes back to how much you trust your election officials (not elected officials, nobody should trust them) who are usually appointed, but are also legally accountable for any tampering that might occur during their watch.

[Lee @ Aug 24th 2006 6:15PM]

I agree with LD in that a paper receipt should be offered, however, that doesn't undo the fact that these machines have caused problems. I don't think that there is a big conspiracy out there, and I'm defintely sure that the machines aren't rigged, but I do believe, when something as important as votes are at stake, that there should be better preventative measures in place. It seems that we'd be better off opting for a "no-tolerance" rule with these things. Most people are lazy, smart, and efficient, and will only do what is neccessary to get by. ENFORCE standards and they will be complied with. And when failure happens by neglect or poor manufacture/design, perhaps a fee should be exacted - something to compensate for the extra man hours of fixing the screw-up. At any rate, I wouldn't be happy if I thought that MY vote was screwed around with.

[x23 @ Aug 24th 2006 6:18PM]

"These machines are just a conspiracy by the big oil companies to register everyone's vote as for "the republican" regardless of what you press.

Posted at 5:46PM on Aug 24th 2006 by Jiggsaw"

- - -

yeah exactly. we don't even need to mention the reptilians living in the Dyson-sphere-esque hollow earth controlling every aspect of world politics and global finance in order to create a New World Order. and lest we forget the secret Nazi Moon Base.

i don't know. i'm in Alaska and my ballot was paper. classic optical reader kind of deal.

and honestly... if it was really a massive conspiracy you'd think they would've have kept the big-oil friendly incumbant Murkowski in. either way pre-primary polling had "Democrat" Tony Knowles leading in 2 of the 3 possible outcomes. and current polling is more or less a wash... could go either way at this point.

as far as : "register everyone's vote as for "the republican"" goes... Alaska is a closed primary.

so surprisingly "the republican" would be on a ballot with ALL REPUBLICANS... and the others are on a ballot with NO REPUBLICANS. it's one thing to (supposedly) switch a "D" candidate to an "R" candidate ... quite another when the ballots are EITHER an "R"-ONLY ballot or a "D"&OTHERS-ONLY ballot. seems a bit more complicated and weird (and more detectable) to switch an entire ballot full of information... like switch an ENTIRE ballot to another ENTIRELY DIFFERENT ballot. doesn't make sense.

disclaimer : i'm undeclared ... and voted an "R" ballot because a) closed primary and you have to choose b) i knew Knowles was getting the D pick anyway c) to vote anti-Murkowski.

[Lee @ Aug 24th 2006 6:27PM]

I've got a better idea...why don't we give all candidates Dell laptops and the last one still alive wins? *kaboom*

[Chris @ Aug 24th 2006 6:46PM]

I agree there is absolutely no truth to these baseless accusations that Republicans don't want to fix elections nor do they have any desire to circumvent any security on the Diebold machines.

Although according to this video of an engineer testifying before congress in october of 2000 a republican paid for exactly that.

http://alternet.org/blogs/video/40755/?comments=view&cID=184430&pID=184406

[BSW @ Aug 24th 2006 6:49PM]

....a quick search of the FEC's contribution database shows that they gave almost 200k to the Republican National State Election Committee in Ohio between 2000 and 2004. Of course, we know what happened in Ohio in 2004, care of Diebold machines...
------

This is the conspiracy theory gone wrong... If Diebold can/was rigging the election for the Reps, wtf are they also paying the Rep party a few years before? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Thanks for playing, please try again...

[IWantTouchScreen @ Aug 24th 2006 6:52PM]

New York Times:

"In mid-August, Walden W. O'Dell, the chief executive of Diebold Inc., sat down at his computer to compose a letter inviting 100 wealthy and politically inclined friends to a Republican Party fund-raiser, to be held at his home in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio.

--->>'I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year'

[IWantTouchScreen @ Aug 24th 2006 6:53PM]

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/business/yourmoney/09vote.html?ex=1383714000&en=4aaf05085122736c&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND

[BSW @ Aug 24th 2006 7:09PM]

IWantTouchScreen - both those things did happen. Stupid moves, et they support my original point. Why? If you're publicly a diehard Republican and you've long-decided to rig the election you already control, why are you going out of your way to not only contribute money to campaigns but to beg your friends to also contribute? Why?

PS- damn you people for making sound like a Diebold apologist. The technology is the problem, not necessarily the politics of the company. I can argue the competence of the company, but that hasn't been mentioned once. This is serious business, way to important to throw all this FUD around that is easily blown up.

[Chris @ Aug 24th 2006 7:26PM]

Poop!

[petro @ Aug 24th 2006 7:26PM]

The US Constitution mandates a "paper ballot"... period. Not a receipt, tape, or audit trail. Canada votes on paper ballots and somehow they manage to count all the votes manually and submit them within hours of an election... there's no excuse here for not using paper ballots.

[zorg @ Aug 24th 2006 7:36PM]

I would never have guessed there were so many *&^!@# Republicans on this blog.

[Jeff @ Aug 24th 2006 7:46PM]

"This is the conspiracy theory gone wrong... If Diebold can/was rigging the election for the Reps, wtf are they also paying the Rep party a few years before? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

Huh? Hell, Diebold has to ensure the republicans win in the states and counties that don't use their machines somehow...

[Doug @ Aug 24th 2006 9:36PM]

Technology fails, but to think fraud only occurs with computers is crazy. I use to work in elections and believe me there is plenty of fraud with paper ballots. what I really love though is the Diebold conspiracy theorist who find some way to blame every Democratic defeat on a Diebold machine. It is laughable...and pathetic.

[Scott @ Aug 24th 2006 11:09PM]

LOL... why would Diebold first make contributions, then rig the elections? Easy... first was a bribe so their machines would be bought for the elections in the first place, second was to keep the politicians they now owned in power.

[rufus @ Aug 25th 2006 12:19AM]

after all the bullshit with 2000/2004 elections you think people would learn that there needs to be paper trails for voters. this is rediculous. i still dont believe Bush got elected not once... but TWICE> aaah