[LINK] Report: E-voting problems cause loss of votes

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Report: E-voting problems cause loss of votes
Grant Gross
IDG News Service
08/11/2004 08:36:38
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;278397524;fp;16;fpid;0

Electronic voting machine problems caused more than 4,500 votes to be lost
in one North Carolina county during last Tuesday's general election, and
gave U.S. President George Bush more than 3,800 extra votes in an Ohio
county, according to reports by the Associated Press.

In North Carolina's Carteret County, apparent confusion over the storage
capacity of UniLect e-voting machines caused the county to lose 4,530
votes, according to a report by the Associated Press. County officials
apparently believed the model of e-voting machine they were using held
10,500 votes, but that model of the machines held only 3,005 votes.

The 4,530 votes lost cannot be recovered, according to an Associated Press
story. UniLect owner and President Jack Gerbel was not immediately
available for comment Friday. The county Board of Elections issued a short
statement saying an investigation by the North Carolina State Board of
Elections is continuing.

In the Ohio incident, a glitch in e-voting machines made by Election
Systems & Software (ES&S) caused Bush to receive an extra 3,893 votes, more
than five times the votes actually cast in the precinct in question.

Unofficial results in Franklin County had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to
Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes the precinct. Elections records showed that
only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct, according to the Associated
Press. Bush beat Democratic challenger John Kerry by about 136,000 votes in
Ohio, according to unofficial results.

Neither a county elections official nor an ES&S spokesman were immediately
available to comment.

The presidential race was close, and was decided when enough votes in Ohio
had been tallied for Bush to be declared the winner there.

--
Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it,
that's trustworthiness. 
-- George W. Bush 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at austarmetro.com.au