For more info on a specific newsletter, click the title. Details will be displayed in a new window.
Subscribe to
Computerworld 40 years of the most authoritative source of news and information for IT leaders.
E-voting off to rocky start in some states
or
Other Government Stories
|
|
|
|
October 27, 2004 (Computerworld) -- With less than a week still to go before the presidential election, dozens of voters in Florida may have already been disenfranchised as a result of technical glitches in the computers supporting the state's early voting process.
Since early voting began on Oct. 18 in Florida and in at least seven other key states, voters have reported hundreds of problems to the Election Incident Reporting System, an online database founded by grass-roots voter organizations, including the Verified Voting Foundation and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.
Thirty-two states allow residents to vote at the polls before Election Day.
Of the 666 incidents reported in Florida, 33 have been linked to alleged voting machine malfunctions in Broward, Duval, Lee, Marion, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Sarasota and Volusia counties.
In Broward County, for example, some voters complained of electronic touch-screen systems that presented incomplete ballots.
Alia Faraj, spokeswoman for Florida Deputy Secretary of State Dave Mann, said that contrary to news reports, there have been no problems during early voting related to any of the touch-screen electronic voting systems in Florida. The only problems that did occur, she said, involved laptop computers that were used to check voter registration rolls in some of the counties.
Those problems were fixed immediately by a simple reboot of the computers, said Faraj. "The touch-screen systems have been operating as planned," she said.
Will Doherty, executive director of the San Francisco-based Verified Voting Foundation, said that despite Florida's assertion that the malfunctions of the laptops handling voter registrations were minor, his organization is aware of dozens of voters who were turned away from the polls "because of that minor system crash."
Doherty also said there have been multiple reports related to touch-screen calibration problems. Some voters have reported that when they touched the screen next to their candidate's name, the screen highlighted the opposing candidate, according to Doherty.
In addition to the counties in Florida, localities in Colorado, Tennessee and Texas, as well as two-thirds of the counties in Georgia, have experienced connection problems between their early voting sites and the central server where voter registration databases reside, according to Votersunite.org, a nonpartisan, grass-roots voter advocacy group.
In President George W. Bush's home state of Texas, some Travis County and Austin County voters complained of touch-screen voting systems that marked a vote for Bush even though they voted Democratic across the board. In Houston, only five voting machines out of approximately 20 were operating, causing long lines and forcing some voters to leave polling places without voting.
"If [these] problems come up on Nov. 2, and they most certainly will, voters can expect to stand in long lines or not vote," said John Gideon, co-founder of Votersunite.org. "The fact that elections officials are again beta-testing our voting system in a live election is incomprehensible."
Alfie Charles, a spokesman for Sequoia Voting Systems, said it is important not to confuse a minor glitch in a voter registration system with the process of voting on an electornic voting system. So far, all reports are that the actual direct recording equipment touch-screen systems are operating normally, he said.
|
Print this Story |
|
Send Us Feedback |
|
E-mail this Story |
|
Digg this Story |
|
Slashdot this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
All Zones Application Performance Zone Business Continuity Zone Data Center Management Zone Enterprise-Class Security Zone The File Data Management Zone Grid Computing on Windows Zone Security Management Zone ITIL Best Practices Zone The SAS Zone Storage Virtualization Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone |
 See your link here
|
 |
||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
|
Get this briefing free (a $195 value), for a limited time, courtesy of VeriSign.
Download this whitepaper, free for a limited time, compliments of Webroot Software.
Why SaaS is Vital to Email and Web Security
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services.
- Microsoft promises four patches next week
- Google gives away home-cooked Web application security scanner
- Storm botnet stages Fourth of July attacks
- More top stories
|
Storage Networking World Users hope storage consolidation will lower TCO. Read more ... See more Storage news
|
Eliminate SPAM, Gain Productivity Learn all about the dangers and the costs of spam in all its forms – from stock-touting to spreadsheet. Also, understand the drawbacks of traditional hardware- and software-based defenses – and the unique benefits of MessageLabs multi-layered, managed Anti-Spam solution; as illustrated by a real-world case study where MessageLabs stopped spam cold.
Download this white paper now!
See more Whitepapers |
Cost Effective Scaling with Virtualization and Coyote Point Systems An overview of the industry trend toward virtualization, how server consolidation has increased the importance of application uptime and the steps being taken to integrate load balancing technology with virtualized servers.
Download this white paper now!
|
CIO
Computerworld
CSO
DEMO
GamePro
Games.net
IDG Connect
IDG World Expo
Infoworld
The Industry Standard
ITworld
JavaWorld
LinuxWorld
MacUser
Macworld
Network World
PC World
Playlist
Copyright © 2008 Computerworld Inc. All
rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium
without express written permission of Computerworld Inc. is prohibited.
Computerworld and Computerworld.com and the respective logos are
trademarks of International Data Group Inc.
|
