(PA) Woman's quest to decertify voting system (UniLect) succeeds

Woman's quest to decertify voting system succeeds

By: J.D. Prose - Times Staff

04/22/2005

NEW SEWICKLEY TWP. - Sheila Green said she never wanted to be a crusader against Beaver County's electronic voting system, but county officials just wouldn't heed her warnings.

"I was hoping to save them embarrassment," the New Sewickley Township resident said. "I just met this immense wall of resistance. They weren't hearing me at all."

Spurned by local officials and a judge last year in her efforts to have the county stop using its $1.2 million UniLect Corp. Patriot touch-screen voting system, Green took her argument to the state, which certifies all voting systems used in Pennsylvania.

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http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14396364&BRD=2305&PAG=461&dept_id=478569&rfi=6


But, then...



State reviews voting machines a second time

MARC LEVY

Associated Press

Posted on Fri, Apr. 22, 2005

HARRISBURG, Pa. - For two weeks, Jack Gerbel has criticized the state's decision to decertify his company's touch-screen voting machines from use in Pennsylvania.

On Friday, however, a second review by the state consultant who recommended decertification of the UniLect Corp. Patriot voting machine, which has been used in three western Pennsylvania counties, did not appear to go much better.

Consultant Michael Shamos appeared to have difficulties getting the touch-screen system to respond to his touch during the four-hour review in a state Capitol hearing room. He would not, however, indicate what he planned to write in his report to state election officials.

"Humans have to live with certain inconveniences," Shamos, a Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor, told reporters after the review. "The question is, do they rise to the level of threatening the safety of the election?"

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http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/11465843.htm


But, wait! There's even more!



Touch-screen voting anomalies found

By Brad Bumsted
STATE CAPITOL REPORTER
Saturday, April 23, 2005

HARRISBURG -- An expert hired by state elections officials discovered anomalies Friday as he retested touch-screen voting machines used in Beaver, Greene and Mercer counties.
Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor Michael Shamos said he couldn't say whether the Unilect Patriot voting machines passed the test. Shamos said he will have to review the videotape of a four-hour examination yesterday and other evidence before making a recommendation.

The Department of State, which hired Shamos, decertified the machines April 7 after they failed accuracy tests on Feb. 15.

Asked for an example of the anomalies he noticed, Shamos said at least five times he put his finger in the middle of a candidate's name on the computer screen and nothing registered.

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http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/regional/s_327234.html


One more...



Glitches add up for electronic vote machines

By Brandon Keat
TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Electronic voting machines frequently are inferior to the technologies they replace, evidenced by a string of snafus stretching from Western Pennsylvania to Miami-Dade County, elections experts say.
Officials in Beaver, Mercer and Greene counties are scrambling to put new voting systems in place after a test found their touch-screen systems froze, failed to detect touches or sometimes didn't count votes accurately. The Department of State decertified the machines, but will retest them Friday in Harrisburg.

In Florida's Miami-Dade County, glitches have prompted calls to scrap a $24.5 million touch-screen system installed after the 2000 election fiasco. Problems with UniLect Patriot voting machines, the same kind used here, have led to contested elections and millions of dollars in legal costs in North Carolina. Other e-voting woes abound.

"Every single type of (electronic voting machine) has had serious problems, from malfunctioning to design flaws to being too hard to use," said Ellen Theisen of VotersUnite!, a nonpartisan group that monitors voting machines and elections. "I hear a lot of the excuse 'human error,' but if these things are so complicated to use, that's a problem too."

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http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/regional/s_326434.html

And the Trib reports it?

Wo...must be a new day-a-dawning or something...Did Scaife die?

n/t