Voting Machine Mess-up

Wichita County, Texas. November, 2004. ES&S. 25% undervote rate in all races reveals a machine malfunction. An excessively high undervote rate (26%) in early voting affected all the contests in about one-fifth of the precincts.*
	More than 6,900 of about 26,000 ballots - mostly early votes - did not record votes for president with 10 of 52 precincts reporting. Similar problems were noted on all other races. Such a high count of "undervotes" is unusual, Gossom said. "We think the problem was in the program and the way it counted straight party votes," Martin said.
ES&S sent a technician to test the equipment, but no one could determine the cause of the problem. A hand count determined the results.
	The clerk's office was rampant with questions, but no answers Wednesday as county officials and political party representatives worked to remedy polling problems.

* Polling problems plague Wichita. Times Record News. November 3, 2004. By Robert Morgan, Matt Terrell and Brent D. Wistrom.

Waiting in Wichita: Count could resume today. Times Record News. November 4, 2004. By Robert Morgan.

County's software woes cause undervote. Star-Telegram. November 4, 2004. By Bill Hanna, Star-Telegram Staff Writer.

See: ES&S 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 uninformed or deceptive.
~ Joseph Holder