Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 09/08/04)

San Diego, California. March, 2004. Diebold.
Optical scanners miscount 2,821 votes.

Out of 208,446 ballots, the machines miscounted 2,821 votes in the Democratic presidential race and the Republican U.S. Senate seat.*

Most of the absentee miscounts occurred in the Democratic presidential race, in which 2,747 votes cast for John Kerry were incorrectly credited to Rep. Dick Gephardt. In the Senate race, in which Bill Jones won, 68 votes cast for Barry L. Hatch were credited to candidate Tim Stoen, and six votes cast for James Stewart were credited to Stoen.

The miscounts occurred because multiple scanners simultaneously fed the absentee ballot data into the computer tabulation system. The large number of ballots and candidates on them overwhelmed the system. ...

"These performance failures are unacceptable," [County Chief Administrative Officer Walt] Ekard wrote [to Diebold]. "Having a reliable and trouble-free voting system is absolutely essential to the county. Your failure to provide such a system in the March election was extremely troubling and any issues that remain must be fully resolved long before the November election."**

* New electronic scanners miscounted some county votes. NC Times April 7, 2004; By: Gig Conaughton, Staff Writer.

** Some votes miscounted in primary, officials say. Union-Tribune. April 8, 2004. By Luis Monteagudo Jr. and Helen Gao, staff writers.

See: Diebold in the News

News stories make it rapidly apparent that
electronic voting is not reliable, accurate, or secure.
Any one who claims otherwise is either ignorant or deceptive.
~ Joseph Holder