Reply #29: Here is some statistical work done by Lynn Landes, working off the

[Zan_of_Texas]

Kathy Dopp work. http://www.ecotalk.org/Florida2004.htm

You can see from here that no Florida county, according to this, has a Diebold touchscreen machine.

However, there are plenty of Diebold optical scan counties in Florida.

We know the most about Diebold because they left their source code and emails places where people could find them.

I understand Sequoia left their code somewhere as well, but haven't heard if anyone has gotten very far in deciphering it.

Meanwhile, the other two major companies, ES&S and Hart InterCivic have not come under the same intense scrutiny. However, a couple of preliminary looks at discrepancies in Florida (one showed them in touchscreen counties, the Berkeley UC one; one showed them in optical scan counties, done here at DU) found the counties pretty well spread across different machines in use. These are preliminary, but a skeptical view would be that NONE of the machine tabulating functions has been thoroughly examined and found up to the seriousness of the task. (Arguably, there's no way to assure that nontransparent computer code can be safeguarded every step of the way, every hour, from development to shipment to storage to use.) Diebold is easy to kick around, with their CEO's famous statement and their rather interesting internal emails. But, with the same level of scrutiny, there's no telling what the others might divulge...