[IP] County voting system invalid
------- Original message -------
From: DJ Foremsky <dforemsky@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 8/4/'05, 8:53
Dr. Farber -
Somebody is finally stepping back and looking at the
electronic voting systems:
http://www.timesonline.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2305&dept_id=478569&newsid=14308961
04/08/2005
County voting system invalid
By: J.D. Prose - Times Staff
BEAVER - The Pennsylvania Department of State said
Thursday that Beaver County's $1.2 million electronic
touch-screen voting system is unreliable and can no
longer be used, even in the primary election that is
only five weeks away.
"Needless to say, we're all shocked by this finding,
and we need to work our way through," Commissioners
Chairman Dan Donatella said. County elections chief
Dorene Mandity declined to comment, saying she had not
yet read the state's report.
In decertifying the UniLect Patriot system, Secretary
of State Pedro Cortes cited concerns he had after a
re-examination of it on Feb. 15 by Carnegie Mellon
University computer professor Michael Shamos that was
prompted in part by a petition filed by Beaver County
residents.
Cortes said in a five-page report that the Patriot
system does not meet the state's criteria of being
"safely and efficiently useable" in elections, or
"capable of absolute accuracy." Cortes said the system
is also confusing and difficult to learn, "displaying
messages whose import is misleading or unclear."
Cortes' decision means that Beaver County, as well as
Mercer and Greene counties, cannot use the Patriot
system in the May 17 primary. These are the only three
counties in the state that use the Patriot system.
Beaver County has used the touch-screen system since
November 1998.
Department of State spokesman Brian McDonald said the
affected counties can choose another voting system
that meets the state's criteria, such as paper ballots
or punch cards.
"Certainly, we'll work as best we can with them to
iron out any problems or details," he said.
Those comments did little to mollify a furious
Donatella, who said it would be impossible for the
county to implement a new voting system so close to
the primary.
"There is no way we could put in a paper ballot by the
17th (of May)," he said. "You don't do this weeks
before an election."
After speaking with Mercer and Greene county
officials, Donatella said the three could sue the
state or seek a court order allowing them to use the
Patriot system next month.
As for the cost, Donatella said the state certified
the Patriot system before the county bought it, so the
state should pay for its replacement now that it has
decided the system is inadequate.
"We're not going to pay for the commonwealth's
mistakes," Donatella said. "We expect the state to pay
in full."
This morning, Cortes was expected to conduct a
telephone conference call with Beaver, Mercer and
Greene officials, Donatella said.
McDonald said the state had yet to decide whether it
would give the counties any money to replace the
banned system. McDonald also said that Cortes'
decision would not affect the results of the November
general election because the Patriot system was
certified at that time.
During the re-examination done in Harrisburg, Cortes
said the Patriot system "failed to sense touches on
multiple occasions." It also froze one time and
stopped accepting any touches, he said.
"Because the screen does not reliably detect the
voters' finger touches, the system will fail to
register their votes," Cortes wrote.
Cortes said the problem could have led to the high
undervote that Beaver, Mercer and Greene counties
experienced in the 2004 general election.
According to a Grove City College study of 24 counties
included in Cortes' report, the undervote for
president, or the difference between the number of
votes counted in a race and total ballots cast, was
5.25 percent in Beaver County, 4.5 percent in Greene
County and 7.29 percent in Mercer County.
Electronic-voting critics contend that the large
number of undervotes proves that votes were not being
correctly tabulated. In Beaver County, according to a
Times review in January, there were 4,551 fewer votes
counted for president than total ballots cast.
Only two of the other counties studied had
presidential undervotes exceeding 2 percent, according
to the Grove City College report. The average
undervote was 1.49 percent.
Mandity said in January that the undervote was
probably caused by people being confused with the
system or simply not voting in the presidential race.
Mercer County had widespread problems, and its
election chief resigned after the November election.
Cortes said Shamos' re-examination found that the
Patriot system's security was lacking. "An intruder
could conduct malicious activities on the personal
computer at the central location (usually kept at the
county election office) and then erase any evidence
that such activity had taken place," Cortes wrote.
The Patriot system also has an optional code that
would allow the machines to skip the required step of
printing a tape when polls open verifying that the
tabulating elements for each race have been set at
zero.
CMU's Shamos, who could not be reached for comment
Thursday, also found that "if a voter would attempt to
deselect or change a straight party choice, such
action could cause the entire ballot to be changed,"
Cortes wrote.
The state was required to conduct a re-examination
because 19 Beaver County residents filed a petition
and paid the required $450 fee. State officials were
also concerned about the problems in Mercer County.
New Sewickley Township resident Sheila Green led the
petition drive. Starting last year, Green began
telling county officials that the system was
untrustworthy and susceptible to fraud.
Green's legal challenge to the Patriot system was
rejected by Beaver County Judge John McBride in
October, but she pressed her concerns with the state
and forced the re-examination. Green could not be
reached for comment Thursday.
Jack Gerbel, president of UniLect Corp., based in
California, said company officials were reviewing
Cortes' decision but condemned it as "totally wrong
... absolutely wrong from start to finish."
Gerbel attended the re-examination in February and
insisted everything went fine. "We'll have to do
something," he said, "because (Cortes decision) is
nuts."
J.D. Prose can be reached online at
jprose@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
©Beaver County Times Allegheny Times 2005
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/