Reply #7: Panel: Blamed shared in election glitches [View All]

Panel: Blamed shared in election glitches

January 9, 2007


By Deanna Bellandi The Associated Press
Cook County Clerk David Orr said today that changes will be made to avoid the kinds of delays in reporting results that plagued the November general election.
The company that supplies the electronic voting machines will be required to conduct further testing of its equipment and improve its software so results are tallied faster. Also, the county will hire someone to oversee its election technology and ensure wired connections are in place to back up the wireless transmission of vote totals.

A new 29-page report by a panel of experts blamed the voting machine company — Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems — and Orr’s office for multiple technology failures and a lack of adequate testing beforehand that would have revealed the problems.

“We had this problem, we’re facing up to it,” Orr said.

The report said delays in reporting results were so severe in suburban Cook County during the election Nov. 7 that results from 90 percent of the precincts weren’t reported until 11 a.m. the next day. In prior elections since November 2000, that 90 percent threshold had been met by 8:30 p.m. on election nights.

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/203282,dst_votereport_109.article