Diebold makes its e-poll book software "glitch-free"

Ah, Diebold, our favorite democracy-threatening, gadget-making punching bag. Earlier this week, Diebold showed off a software fix to Maryland election officials of the company's new "e-poll books," a device to keep track of voter records and registration. The e-poll books previously had been marred by a glitch that caused machines in every precinct to freeze and reboot during the recent Maryland primaries, reports The Washington Post. However, there still remain two big problems that Diebold is mystified at: "why some units failed to communicate properly with one another, and why some access cards -- which voters receive after checking in and must insert into a voting machine -- 'did not encode.'" Yeah, that would be a problem, considering that these machines are crucial in, we dunno, the very foundation of our democracy. Also, for the record, Diebold says that its other voting machines "worked well," which in Diebold-speak means glitch-free but with the usual shoddy security.

[Rob @ Sep 27th 2006 6:09PM]

If we can't trust our voting systems, the losing side will always question the authenticity of the results. We need something better than this Seibold system, even with patches to fix the problems we are aware of.

[Simon @ Sep 27th 2006 7:16PM]

Those glitches are as unimportant as can be, as long as the actualy data can be easily manipulated.

It's a bit far fetched, but I just noticed you can split their name into dieb-old, and dieb is german for thief. though, from an "old thief" you would expect much more cunning in stealing an election. they just barely got away with it and left a load of traces. thank god the have friends in high places to protect them.

[DemoKarma @ Sep 27th 2006 7:21PM]

Well since we've spread "democracy" to Iraq maybe we can now try practicing it at home with an election process that is not corrupted.
Since Iraq needs to build its econonomy maybe they can develop and build some honest voting machines to sell back to us.

[Luke @ Sep 27th 2006 7:38PM]

You know, it's hard being a Political Science graduate student these days and have to hear all the anti-American partisan trash that people who have no clue spew. Anyone who thinks the US is a "corrupt" democracy has never read a single damn textbook in their life. The US is far from perfect, and I 100% agree that we need to keep our elections as legitimate and tamperproof as possible (who doesn't want that?), but you nay-sayers really do a disservice to both your country and your brain.

Go read Robert Dahl and come back when you learn something.

[Troy @ Sep 27th 2006 8:53PM]

"you would expect much more cunning in stealing an election. they just barely got away with it and left a load of traces. thank god the have friends in high places to protect them."

Sounds like loser talk to me. You get a chance to over-throw the government every two years. Just because you failed the last couple of times doesn't mean you'll never get power back. So go to camp. Camp quityourbitchin.

[expat @ Sep 27th 2006 10:49PM]

I agree that we need to keep the election as legitimate as possible. Diebold has blown this, and they need to go. I'm all for a less than digital voting system. There are far too many risks with Diebold.

@Luke
If you think it's hard being a Poli Sci grad student and have to listen to some Anti-American Partisan trash, come join the expat community with me and hear some real Anti-American fun. No sympathy here, and don't even try to throw last semester's reading assignments at people. If you honestly believe that there is no corruption in US democratic system, then you just aren't paying enough attention.

[CRH @ Sep 27th 2006 11:45PM]

Man, the leftist are going to howl like banshees when they lose. Diebold diebold! Karl Rove stole the election! We couldn't possibly lose with steller candidates like jack "cutnrun" murtha.

[John Patti @ Sep 28th 2006 1:36AM]

Bitch bitch bitch, the editor does a good job of letting us know his feeling. Oh Diebold this and Diebold that. Diebold is not the only manufacturer of electronic voting systems. Is any computer 100% perfect? How about voting with the old manual chad system, 100% perfect? Election that is not corrupt??? Do I hear a hint of liberal anti-american hate? I do recall democrats who die still get to vote in many states. Or 50,000 more registered democrats than there are citizens in WI. Slashing tires on vehicles used by Republicans to transport voters to the polls. No body, no country is perfect. I do know the best damn country in the world is the USA. Love it or leave it!

[eyes on it @ Sep 28th 2006 1:43AM]

ha ha can't fool me, to all you u know who's, diebold's going down

[Elan @ Sep 28th 2006 5:24PM]

I am annoyed by "appeals to authority" this is when someone says something like: "You know, it's hard being a Political Science graduate student these days... This is a common technique to try to get people believe them by saying that they have an authority on a subject. It is fine to cite other thinkers as to why you have come to a conclusion, but it is not effective, or reasonable to say that because you are a student that others should take your word as an authority on the subject. Some, in fact many people have already finished their educations in the areas in which you speak in any subject. If Robert Dahl comented on this story and did not use his name as a token of credibility, but logic, I would be far more inclined to accept an argument. Luke what you have done is fail to present any logical path and appealed to an authority name which may or may not support your views (in this case I am not sure Dahl would). On top of this many thinkers have their weak moments and fail to provide logic (Samual Huntington of Harvard is hit and miss, and his latest work seams to disregard logic all together).

[Gabe @ Sep 28th 2006 5:29PM]

To question Diebold is anti-American? First of all, if you think this is a partisan issue you are a fool. If you think that an opaque voting system is fine as long as your party wins then you are naive and deserve any scams that people pull over on you. The bottom line is any voting system that is closed and reviewable only be a select few, with no clearly verifiable forensic trail is unacceptable. Efficiency is immaterial next to accuracy. At the very least any electronic voting system needs to print a verifiable paper trail, and it should be completely open source with all procedures available for public review.

Secondly, turning patriotism into a partisan issue is a mockery of the values this country was founded upon. "It helps the terrorists because W says so, and he's conservative, therefore he can not be wrong, and anyone questioning his wisdom must be anti-American". Oh, but wait, how conservative is this administration? Let's see, are they fiscally conservative? Hmm, no, biggest deficits in history. Are they for reducing government power? No not that really either. Oh yeah, but they give some fine speeches on "staying the course" and "American values", that's all the proof I need!

It's so ironic that Bush and company are getting unprecedented executive powers, huge tax breaks for their industry, overpriced contracts for their oil buddies (Halliburton), are eroding citizen rights such as due process, all at YOUR expense with no benefit to you, and you run out there to defend them with nebulous slogans against all common sense. Your gullibility nauseates me.