Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 09/02/04-09/03/04)

Johnson County, Kansas. April, 2002. Diebold.
Unknown software error perverts outcome in six races.

An unexplained software error caused the voting computers to miscount the votes.*

In the April 2002 municipal elections, some modems used to transmit results from polling places to the central election office failed. The county no longer transmits results from polling places to the central election office via modem; cartridges that record results are hand-delivered to the office.

Also, results were misreported in six races. The system miscounted hundreds of votes, and a re-count was ordered.

... Diebold investigated the problem and said in a news release issued at the time that a software error had led to the election night problem.

* New voting technology is questioned: Computer systems can be tampered with, critics say. The Kansas City Star. September 21, 2003. By Finn Bullers.

See: Diebold in the News

Intellectuals solve problems,
geniuses prevent them.
~ Albert Einstein