Diebold Problems Slow Election Results In Alaska
from the sure,-you-can-trust-those-machines... dept
With the ridiculous number of voting machine flaws that have been reported concerning Diebold e-voting machines, you'd think the company would be careful to make sure the most basic things, such as being able to have the machines send in its results, would work properly. Apparently not. Up in Alaska, the results from a recent election were slowed after numerous Diebold machines failed to actually report the results of the election. Election officials needed to "manually upload" the results from the machines. If the machines can fail on something as basic as that, is it any wonder that so many of us ask why there aren't backup systems in these machines for the purpose of a recount?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Diabolical. Diebold is apparently not only responsible for making crappy voting machines, but also for the quality and servicablity of third party modems and the POTS network.
Shit fails. They at least provided for a backup solution, i.e. the ability to manually force a connection.
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Shit fails. They at least provided for a backup solution, i.e. the ability to manually force a connection.
Uh, right, that's the point. For *this* they have a backup. Why don't they have a backup for counting votes? The point is shit does fail. If you're building voting machines you want to make damn sure that you have backup for everything that might fail.
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Oh gezzz.
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I'm assuming you're talking about the conspiracy theories that Diebold supports Republicans. However, we have NEVER focused on that aspect of it. The point isn't about partisan issues, but about accurate and fair voting for whoever the people want.
Secondly, the point of this post was not, in any way, to suggest that this was a planned breakage by Diebold for some master plan. We've never made that claim about any of Diebold's actions. The point, as in all of our posts about e-voting, is to note that these things break, and they should be held to higher standards for the sake of democracy.
It shows an interesting bias on your part that you immediately jump to a partisan conclusion.
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That's funny. I thought he was joking.
Really, Mike. Try switching to decaf.
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Since none of you know...
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These machines have been hacked numerous times with multiple failures in tests done in states all over the country.
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Yeah, I got that. I got it the first couple dozen times I heard the story, and variations thereof. But if you're trying to illustrate that point with this story then you're doing a piss pure job of it. How about "Compliments to Diebold on having the foresight to include redundancy for connectivity issues. Too bad they don't see the need to do that for actual vote counting issues." See? If you make your point without mischaracterization, you don't catch flack from people that aren't partisan hacks or, you know, read. as it is, you're reporting a nonissue as if it's part of some master plan. 'Course, that feeds the target demo, so I guess it's easier. I digress.
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Only because I read this site. Look at the first comment.
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First, why the hell do they need electronic voting in Alaska? Can't they just shout out the window and listen to the responses?
As for the people on Pluto being "closer", face it, Pluto is not a planet. Can't live on a place that isn't even a planet. Now I just have to track down the peole who sail the 5th ocean.
Mike, I think maybe sometimes you jump on posters when they make comments, most of the time they may not be taking issue with you or your views, but other posters here.
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Straight outa the managerial handbook
It states and I quote "When releasing new product or service apply the BASS ACKWARDS philosiphy to which this is our credo. Use technology that is outdated & is destined to fail from the getgo. This will in turn make us managers look like we have something to do managerial.
Especially when working with the government which is who taught us this philosiphy. Never accept any responsability & always always point the finger at someone else."
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Also, just too many questions surrounding the actual cause of the failure to jump to conclusions Mike...
"Wilson says the machines' modems either did not get a dial tone or had other problems."
Did the modems fail to get a dialtone on a line that had a verifiable dialtone with an analog phone? Were the lines tested to ensure that they can call the votes in.
Were there dialing issues (outside lines, prefixes, toll restrictions, etc)
More importantly, is the voting machine SMART enough to test the line and connectivity to the upload server PRIOR to voting window. I.e., if the machine can't verify a connection at the start of the voting day, it is taken offline or deemed unsuable?
There is a WIDE swath of possibilities there with the "other problems".. Of course, it could be 100% "other problems" which all reside in the voting machine...
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Have you ever looked at election officials? "You Plug this wire in where?"
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