VotePA-Allegheny Report : Irregularities in the May 16th Primary Election

VotePA-Allegheny Report on Irregularities in the May 16th Primary Election

By David A. Eckhardt, Ph.D., Richard M. King, Ph.D., Collin Lynch
June 17, 2006

This report of irregularities in the May 16 Pennsylvania Primary Election was prepared for VotePA.

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Overview of Findings

Serious procedural, operational, and design issues call into question the results from iVotronic voting machines used in Allegheny County in the May 16th primary election. It appears that two different models of the ES&S iVotronic machine were used, one of which was not legally certified. Poll-worker statements and post-election analysis of voting-machine printouts from the election reveal that electronic voting machines ran program code not legally certified for use in Pennsylvania. Other print-outs demonstrate operational problems at many polling places and serious problems with the integrity of the iVotronic “zero-print” function, which is supposed to assure the public that electronic “ballot-box stuffing” does not occur.

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Conclusion

A mixture of uncertified software, uncertified hardware, and dubious or meaningless zero prints casts serious doubts on election integrity. Though our post-election review did not reveal “smoking gun” evidence of vote tampering or lost votes, we are left with no real assurance that they didn't happen, either. In the words of Carl Sagan, “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” We view this uncertainty as unacceptable and call on the County to address it immediately.

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this system is more trouble than it's worth, old hardware, new software, uncertified software,
certified software, it's not there yet, and it's a darn shame that we have been subject to
the unfortunate results of this experiment.