GAO: Voting machines not to blame for Florida irregularities

With this year's presidential race in full swing, it's easy to forget about alleged electronic voting glitches that snarled at least one congressional contest in 2006.

But a report issued by government auditors this week is drawing new attention to what many computer scientists view as the perils of touch-screen machines that don't produce a paper record.

It all goes back to the November 2006 election in Sarasota County, Fla., where more than 18,000 of the county's ballots--or, put another way, 1 in 7 voters--didn't register a pick in the U.S. House of Representatives race. County officials went on to certify Republican Vern Buchanan as the winner by a 369-vote margin over Democrat Christine Jennings, who went on to lodge legal challenges.

The arguably abnormal undervote prompted concern from voting rights advocates about the possibility of glitches in the Elections Systems & Software iVotronic voting machines used in the race. (Florida has since announced its intention to ditch the touch-screen voting machines.)

Now government investigators appear poised to put the events behind them. A Government Accountablity Office report (PDF) released Thursday contends a series of tests staged last fall demonstrate that nothing was amiss with the voting machines themselves.

"Although the test results cannot be used to provide absolute assurance, we believe that these test results, combined with the other reviews that have been conducted by the State of Florida, GAO, and others, have significantly reduced the possibility that the iVotronic DREs (Direct Recording Electronic machines) were the cause of the undervote," the GAO wrote. "At this point, we believe that adequate testing has been performed on the voting machine software to reach this conclusion and do not recommend further testing in this area."

And on Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives task force that had commissioned the report voted, based on those conclusions, to recommend ending its investigation and Jennings' legal challenge to the results. A vote scheduled for next week in the House Committee on Administration is likely to make that decision final.

"This investigation served a critical role in fulfilling the House's constitutional responsibility when seating members of Congress," said Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez (D-Texas), who served as task force chairman.

End of story, right?

Hardly, if you ask computer scientists who study electronic voting machines.

The Verified Voting Foundation, a group founded by Stanford University computer science professor David Dill that advocates for paper trails accompanying all electronic ballots, argues the GAO's test methods were "insufficiently ambitious" to determine whether the machines were at fault.

To reach its conclusion, the GAO set up three tests: checking the firmware on a representative sample of machines to gain "reasonable assurance" that machines had been running the correct, certified programs on the contested election day (they did); seeing whether predefined test ballots showed up properly and recorded votes accurately on 10 iVotronic machines (they did); and "miscalibrating" two iVotronic machines to see whether they would still record the ballot selections displayed on the screen (they did, for the record, although with some difficulty on the part of the test-voter).

But the Verified Voting Foundation says the auditors should have also explored a number of other areas, such as internal bug data, firmware on the "cartridges" that are inserted in the machine to record a voter's ballot, and equipment manufacturing quality.

"The GAO tests add little to what we already knew," said Princeton University computer science professor Edward Felten, who has authored reports on e-voting vulnerabilities. "There is still insufficient evidence to determine what caused the undervotes."

Dill maintains his group isn't trying to criticize the GAO but wants to highlight how difficult it is to sort out election irregularities in a contest relying solely on complex computer systems. By Verified Voting's count, five states were still using paperless electronic voting systems on Super Tuesday--Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, and Tennessee.

"Had this election been conducted on a voter-verified paper ballot system, as in surrounding counties that form part of District 13, it probably would not have failed," he said. "More to the point, it would have been a lot easier to find out what happened."

In any case, Jennings, for her part, plans to challenge Buchanan for his seat again this year.

[MadLyb]

Like paper is any better

The is no bulletproof solution and while this technology is still eveolving, it is the best solution available.

[maatthias]

Investigation

"And on Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives task force that had commissioned the report voted, based on those conclusions, to recommend ending its investigation and Jennings' legal challenge to the results."<br /><br />If the report is accurate and the machines are not at fault then logically it's people that should be investigated. Why is this not being done?

[krosavcheg]

Typical Democrat lately

They just don't take losing gracefully. Al Gore set a new standard of whining and complaining and the party as a whole unfortunately seems to have taken it up. <br /><br />I have hopes that the Republicans don't catch this bug but the prognosis isn't good.

[doubter2]

machines or fraud?

If the Florida machines are not to blame for the extremely unlikely outcome, that leaves fraud, doesn't it?

[M. L. Cook]

No such thing as a perfect election.

doubter2 wrote: "If the Florida machines are not to blame for the extremely unlikely outcome, that leaves fraud, doesn't it?"<br /><br />Not at all. There is no such thing as a perfect election. A voter does not always follow instructions. A voter doest not always vote in every race, ect.<br /><br />History shows us that 18,000 undervoted ballots in not uncommon in Sarasota County. In 2000, with paper ballots, there were more than 25,000 spoiled ballots in the same race.<br /><br />Further, this is not uncommon for voters to ignore other races. For Duval County in 2006 (a paper ballot county), 224,000 voters cast a ballot in the Senate race, but less than 164,000 cast a ballot in the Congressional Race. That means that 60,000 voters skipped that race. <br /><br />There is no doubt that we need paper ballots, but just because voters fail to cast a vote does not mean that there is fraud involved.

[aureolin]

Definition of a Fraudulent Vote

Voter Fraud can be determined quite easily: If the candidate elected was a Republican, then you can be certain the voting process was fraudulent.<br /><br />Right.<br /><br />Unfortunately, most of the "Voter Fraud" accusations in the last several elections have amounted to no more than this rational. Think about it though. If you believe that people are stupid enough that you need to tell them what to eat and what to buy (e.g. the food police, 'buy green' campaigns, etc.) then you probably think they'd buy this bunk also. Catch a clue: People are not stupid, even if they do things you don't agree with!

[flitcher]

Hi,<br /><br />Voting fraudulance does not bring machines alone but also involves men doing that work. I agree with the author, that machines alone are not to be blamed, The people involved with the activties should be put in front of LAW. <br />==================================================================================<br />flicther<br /><br /><a href="http://www.floridadrugrehab.com">Florida Drug Rehab</a>

[saraheric]

As many as 12 counties -- Cumberland, Lebanon and Lancaster among them -- reported problems, according to a letter GOP counsel Lawrence Tabas wrote to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes. Some people reported that machines were changing Republican votes to Democratic. Long lines, voting machine failures and registration glitches hampered balloting in precincts in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey and Florida, as Americans flocked to the polls to elect a new president. Early voting by nearly 31 million people eased congestion in many states, but machine malfunctions forced the temporary closures of some polling stations in Virginia , which is considered a presidential battleground state after decades in which Democratic candidates all but conceded the state.<br />------------------------------------------<br />sarah<br /><br />&lt;a href="http://www.addictionlink.org/drug-rehab-center/missouri "rel=dofollow"&gt;missouri drug rehab&lt;/a&gt;

[rosejenifar]

Voting machines were at the heart of major irregularities during the elections for the position of a judge in Florida.Florida's reputation for reliable election results has suffered since the elections in 2000,when George W.Bush was elected president as a result of the controversial ballot counts in the state.Voting irregularities in three Florida counties that used electronic voting machines in this month's election may have awarded as many as 260,000 votes more to President George W.Bush than were expected,according to researchers at the University of California,Berkeley.<br />----------------------------------------------------------<br />rosejenifar<br />&lt;a href="http://www.addictionlink.org/drug-rehab-center/florida"&gt;florida drug rehab&lt;/a&gt;

[tia010]

Hi,<br />This is not uncommon for voters to ignore other races. For Duval County in 2006 (a paper ballot county), 224,000 voters cast a ballot in the Senate race, but less than 164,000 cast a ballot in the Congressional Race. That means that 60,000 voters skipped that race. Thanks for such a useful article.<br /><br />Tia,<br />&lt;a href="http://www.addictionlink.org/drug-rehab-center/delaware"&gt;delaware drug rehab&lt;/a&gt;

[tia010]

Hi,<br />This is not uncommon for voters to ignore other races. For Duval County in 2006 (a paper ballot county), 224,000 voters cast a ballot in the Senate race, but less than 164,000 cast a ballot in the Congressional Race. That means that 60,000 voters skipped that race. Thanks for such a useful article.<br /><br />Tia,<br />[url=http://www.addictionlink.org/drug-rehab-center/delaware]delaware drug rehab [/url]

[tomagni]

The topic is newly for me. I am really learn more from this topic. I must think that the decision may also be a nod to state and local election officials who have complained about the costs associated with outfitting their machines with paper trails. I must need more information about this matter.<br />_______________________________<br />Tom<br /><br />&lt;a href="http://www.addictionlink.org/drug-rehab-center/delaware"&gt;delaware drug rehab&lt;/a&gt;