Looks like the voting shenanigans have started early

[DanXIII 8]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/31/fl...dont_cooperate/

 

"Florida voters using electronic ballot machines are having persistent problems choosing Democrats in early elections, the Miami Herald reports.

 

The touch-screen gizmos seem strangely attracted to Republican candidates. One voter needed assistance from an election official, and even then, needed three tries to convince the machine that he wanted to vote for Democrat Jim Davis in the gubernatorial race, not his Republican opponent Charlie Crist."

 

"Unfortunately, the article tells us little. It sounds as if the machines are of poor quality, but the paper neglects to mention the manufacturer(s) responsible for them. The elections supervisor's spokesperson seems altogether too comfortable with the notion that the machines are unreliable. 'They do that all the time?'"

 

 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/...ws/15869924.htm

 

Any programmers, or anyone here who works with touch-screens that can shed some light on this?

[edjr 5,610]

[davebg 0]

I work in IT as a Software Quality Assurance Analyst. I've been doing it for about 12 years for a number of small and large corporations in a variety of fields. I can tell you for a fact that when projects don't stay within their timelines, QA is usually the first thing to get cut. Furthermore, MANY of the people who do QA testing are focking hacks who are barely better than sitting a trained monkey at the compooter.

 

You'd be absolutely shocked if you saw how many companies don't even have QA testers at all.

 

That being said, no amount of testing can fully account for how stoopid the people who implement and administer said software/hardware are.

Political insiders have expressed alarm after 12 voter smartcards have gone missing from one Shelby County, TN early vote location!

 

The cards are used to activate electronic voting machines.

 

The location at the center of the controversy is Bishop Byrne High School on E. Shelby Drive in Memphis.

 

The polling place started out with 25 cards. By Wednesday, 11 were missing, says an eyewitness.

 

The location was given 5 more smartcards on Thursday.

 

And another card went missing!

 

Someone possessing a smartcard could use 'off the shelf equipment' [equipment that reprograms the card] and alter it to be used multiple times, and cast multiple votes.

 

One concerned insider explains: "Shelby County Board of Elections has been notified. They said is was 'not a big deal' because, they said, the cards are deactivated. But the reality is, you can buy the equipment at computer stores to reactivate them. It's on the Internet how to reactivate the cards!"

 

Meanwhile, The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is reviewing reports by the Shelby County Election Commission that two people voted twice during early voting in Memphis.

 

Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons said he's referred the cases to the TBI for investigation along with other matters he declined to discuss.

 

Poll watchers are expected to turn out Tuesday to observe voting in Tennessee's heated U.S. Senate race between Chattanooga Republican Bob Corker and Memphis Democrat Harold Ford Jr.

[DanXIII 8]

I work in IT as a Software Quality Assurance Analyst. I've been doing it for about 12 years for a number of small and large corporations in a variety of fields. I can tell you for a fact that when projects don't stay within their timelines, QA is usually the first thing to get cut. Furthermore, MANY of the people who do QA testing are focking hacks who are barely better than sitting a trained monkey at the compooter.

 

You'd be absolutely shocked if you saw how many companies don't even have QA testers at all.

 

That being said, no amount of testing can fully account for how stoopid the people who implement and administer said software/hardware are.

 

Thanks for the info!

[pingpong 0]

I also work in IT for software quality. How friggin difficult can the code in these machines be? You have a series of radio buttons capturing your vote for each race. You can only pick one choice for each race. When you push the accept button, count the votes, refresh the screen. I'm positive that the SQA folks thoroughly tested this simple logic program.

 

My guess is that there are 1) dumb-ass voters that can barely read, let alone understand the concept of pushing buttons, and 2) people working for candidates that have the sole job of creating controversy over the voting machines so that they can cry 'unfair'.

[Recliner Pilot 61]

Rove!