BBV:(Orange) County to Buy 4 Optical Ballot Scanners in Time for Recall

[Bushfire]

By Stuart Pfeifer, Times Staff Writer

Orange County took the final steps Tuesday to prepare for the Oct. 7 election, agreeing to buy four optical scan machines that will be used to count hundreds of thousands of ballots expected to be cast in the state's first gubernatorial recall election.

County voters will use pen and paper to cast votes, filling in small boxes next to the name of their candidate of choice.

The ballots will be fed through optical scan devices, including the four that the Board of Supervisors agreed to buy Tuesday for $43,000 and an additional 20 that are being leased for about $80,000.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/la-me-ocvote24sep24,1,4271606.story?coll=la-recall free reg. required

no mention of who the manufacturer is in the article. could Orange County be in sudden receipt of flawed Diebold Optical Scan machines? any Orange Cnty evil DU'ers be able to find out?

[Nottingham]

1. Whoo Hoo! The word is getting out! We need a Paper trail

:bounce:

[Bushfire]

2. Did you know the audit log could be altered in Optical Scan machines?

Salon.com printed a great article that explains it quite well. It was their main story yesterday too! If Orange Cnty uses them, I wouldn't feel so confident in this election.

[TahitiNut]

6. Technology is never the sole "answer".

Any technology (including mere paper) must be matched to (combined with) an appropriate technique in order to achieve a goal, including the goal of some level of reliability.

This is, in essence, the fundamental issue regarding touchscreens. There has been, as yet, no technique (e.g. process, procedure, approach) that offers the level of reliability demanded of our election systems. Any proposed technique must be designed with a thorough appreciation for the limitations and vulnerabilities of the technology being employed. The "BBV" issue is an amalgamation of problems with both the technique and the impediments in gaining the fulsome appreciation for the limitations and vulnerabilities of the extant/proffered technologies.

That's it in a (tahiti)nutshell, IMHO.

[salin]

8. Which is why... I am prefer the optical scan machines.

The ones I voted on in the 90s in Calfornia kept the ballots - which were easy to see/use - inside the machine. Hand recounts made simple - no hanging chads, etc.

We will never rid technology from voting machines - we need methods that allow verifiability. Optical scan ballots are verifiable.

[TahitiNut]

11. Yes. The QA buzzwords are "verification" and "validation".

:thumbsup: (Touchscreens purport to guarantee 'validity' but at the potentially very severe cost of 'verity'.)

[shance]

10. Scanners can be manipulated/programmed

Atleast there is paper with which to track, but I would rather "Doris and Bobby" count the votes than a scanner.

This is one (among many actually) where people need to do the work, not devices that can be altered.

[Eloriel]

12. The one positive is that there's a built-in VVPB

VVPB = voter-verified paper ballot

That of course doesn't prevent fraud, it should help (slightly) to discourage it, but most important, the ballots ought to be able to be used in a recount -- as long as they don't feed them through the machines again.

Eloriel

[gristy]

3. This is obviously just great news.

Thanks for posting. Going forward, it can be used as a good example of the benefits of optical scan and paper ballots.

Four optical scan machines (though $10,000 each sounds pretty high - MN purchased the Diebold AccuVote ES-2000 for $4,572 each) to count hundreds of thousands paper ballots. That's pretty good!

[hang a left]

4. OC is especially Republican and Conservative

[et]

5. I'm an OC Dem and Du'er - Unfortunately don't have any access

to info about new machines.

There are a number of left-minded people in OC - Don't believe everything you read. Even my favorite, most-conservative city of Irvine has a Democratic Mayor - Larry Agran!!!

[ramblin_dave]

7. Does this mean they'll have 28 scanners?

Is that enough for one in every precinct? If not then ballots may need to be carried to a central counting facility and that enables all kinds of problems if the chain of custody is compromised.

A key feature of any election process is that all ballots should be counted at every precinct under tight controls. Also overvote and undervote protection should be enabled and this can't happen unless every precinct has a scanner.

[haymaker]

9. Add 20,000 to Arnie's total.

Just in time.

[xxqqqzme]

13. there was an article a few

months ago that the OC company that supplied the optical scanners was bought by Diebold! I'll C if I can find it.

found it - whew

6/30/03
GREEN — Diebold has become a start-to-finish election company with the acquisition of Data Information Management Systems, one of the largest voter registration companies in the United States.

Headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., Data Information has provided voter registration solutions and customer support for more than 22 years in a variety of jurisdictions, including Los Angeles County, where the company installed the largest county-based voter registration system in the country.

“I think it’s a very positive move,” said Jeff Matthews, Stark County Board of Elections director.

“They support Los Angeles County with 10 million registered voters,” he said. “If that system can handle Los Angeles County, that system can handle Ohio’s 7 million.”

Diebold said it has successfully interfaced with Data Information systems in several jurisdictions, including Los Angeles County.

MORE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=12462&forum=DCForumID61

[symbolman]

14. Have a look at my latest flash movie

"VOTEREVOLUTION" re BBV and DIEBOLD -



http://www.takebackthemedia.com/voterevolution.html