Did Volusia drop Diebold too, or just Leon?

I heard that Volusia county also ditched Diebold but I can't find a link. More info please?

related question - here in Vermont we have Diebold Opscans. My SOS says that the problems they found in Leon county don't apply because we have a third party, LHS (not diebold), programming the ballot definitions on the memory cards. Anyone know, in FL, is there a third party also doing the memory cards, or does Diebold do it? And do you think the fact that LHS does the memory cards is a reason to ignore all the concerns? I certainly don't, because Diebold still wrote all the vote counting programs.

thanks

if they're corrupted.

BTW, I didn't mean they are corrupted, what I meant was CAN they be corrupted? The right answer is "Yes, anybody and any company CAN be corrupted."

That's why auditing is so important. We understand it for financial transactions, why don't we understand it for voting?

our director of elections, Kathy DeWolfe, has told me at least 6 times, "LHS is a reputable company."

what exactly does that mean? I don't know any of the people that work there. Was Enron a "reputable company" 6 years ago?

I've been trying to push for audits here, but Kathy says "I don't think we need audits here in Vermont."

In my opinion, the more correct statement is, we don't need people like you Kathy running our elections here in Vermont.

they told me:

they have never seen the code that counts the votes (firmware on the scanner from diebold)

they only program the memory cards


I think it's irrelevant, because even if LHS was good, I can think of several ways Diebold could fix elections without access to the memory cards, not to mention just leaving them vulnerable to hacking.

i am amazed that my SOS and Director of Elections think this is all fine.

It is irrelevant. If there is an exploit that affects Diebold firmware then there is nothing the vendor can do about it. Only Diebold can release the patch(s) to repair the security holes.

Corporation Name LHS ASSOCIATES, INC.
Corporation Status Active
File No F-12382-0
Type Foreign
Incorporation Date 12/05/1988
Corporation Description ELECTIONS, SALES & SERVICES
State of Incorporation MA
Fiscal Month End 12
Registered Agent CT CORPORATION SYSTEM
Address 400 Cornerstone DR ST240
City State Zip Williston VT 05495
President JOHN SILVESTRO
Vice Pres GERARD BERGERON
Secretary RICHARD ASOIAN
Treasurer JOHN SILVESTRO
Director3 RICHARD SCHWEDLER
Principal Street Address 13 BRANCH ST
City State Zip METHUEN MA 01844
Last Annual Report 12/31/2004
Terminated 10/27/1989
Reinstated 04/21/2000
----------------------------------

http://www.sec.state.vt.us/seek/corpseek.htm

GuvWurld News Archive and original editorial in Daytona Beach News-Journal

Voters Unite Summary of Miami-Dade touchscreen problems
http://www.votersunite.org/info/miamidadelight.asp

1) The problems started in April 2002 immediately after Miami-Dade County officials deployed their new ES&S iVotronic paperless electronic voting systems. An ES&S employee made a last minute change to the ballot definition file, changing the order of the candidates, and the results showed wins for the wrong candidates.
2) Then in the September 2002 election, an average of 8.2% of the votes were lost in 31 problem precincts. In some precincts the loss was as high as 21.5%.
3) In May of 2004, the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition obtained of a memo from the elections office, revealing that there was a bug in the audit software — a bug ES&S had known about for a year and hadn't fixed.
4) In the August 2004 Primary, many problems plagued the system. Audio ballots malfunctioned; machines worked in some electrical outlets and not in others; low-battery conditions triggered the audit bug. The county received 14,253 complaint forms filled out by voters.
5) A study of the 2004 General Election, released in May 2005 revealed thousands of discrepancies between the vote totals and the number of voters. Both phantom votes and excessive undervote rates abounded.
6) The March 2005 special election suffered from a programming error that lost over 1200 ballots, called into question five previous elections, and cost Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan her job.
7) Finally, after three years of disenfranchised voters and questionable results, the new Supervisor of Elections, Lester Sola, is recommending getting rid of the iVotronic machines and using optical scanners — NOT because of malfunctions that affected the democratic process, but because the elections have been costing about five times as much, twice the budget.


May 28. Elections chief urges Miami-Dade to ditch touch-screen machines. Miami-Dade County's elections chief has strongly recommended that its ATM-style voting machines be ditched for optical scan ones that use paper ballots, another black mark for the devices that were billed as a way to avoid a repeat of the 2000 presidential election fiasco. Story Archive
May 28. Miami-Dade's elections chief urges new system. After repeated embarrassing glitches at the polls, elections officials in Miami-Dade County have recommended scrapping the county's $24.5 million electronic voting system in favor of paper ballots with optical scanners. Story Archive
May 28. Voting system change in Dade likely. Miami-Dade is poised to be the first place in the nation to ditch the iVotronics paperless voting machines for paper-based balloting after the county's top election supervisor on Friday issued a memo ''strongly recommending'' the change.
If the county scraps the iVotronics, getting the new machines would take more than a year. County officials have been careful not to imply that the machines are faulty. The touch-screens are state certified and will continue to be used in upcoming elections while the issue is debated. Story Archive
May 29. Paperless, touch-screen voting costs soar. Miami-Dade's controversial paperless voting machines cost taxpayers about $6.6 million to operate during November's presidential election - about twice what officials budgeted. Story Archive