Iowa: Serious Bugs in ES&S Election Software

United Voters!
 
Many serious bugs in ES&S election software are finally being revealed, in spite of ES&S' claims that their software is reliable. The latest bugs to surface, just days ago, affect the data from optical scan machines as well as from iVotronic paperless voting machines. Bugs revealed so far include:
 
1) March, 2004.  Indiana discovers that ES&S has installed uncertified software on the iVotronics in four counties. The reason? The certified version doesn't tabulate the votes correctly.

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1706282
 
2) May, 2004.  Miami-Dade, Florida. Memos written nearly a year before show that there are serious bugs in ES&S software, and they are probably present in all ES&S counties. They cause the audit log data to be scrambled and fail to account for ballots cast. This is the version ES&S installed in Indiana — knowing full well about the audit bugs that had not yet been publicized.
 
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1084316008117

For a simple description of how these bugs work, see http://www.votersunite.org/info/auditbug.asp.
 
3) July 9, 2004.  More and more bugs in the ES&S election management software are revealed in memos written by Miami-Dade election officials to ES&S over a month ago. The central tabulation machines don't have the capacity to handle all the audit data, they have problems when optical scan information is merged, and they can't reliably accept data passed over the phone lines.  ES&S response?  Fix the problems yourself by changing your procedures.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/9111841.htm
 
If your county uses ES&S voting equipment, make sure the county officials are aware of this information.  How many more bugs are exposed in unpublicized memos to ES&S or still hidden in the software?  How many bugs are hidden in the other vendors' software?
 
Paper ballots are clearly more important than ever.

Thanks!!

~ the VotersUnite team
http://www.votersunite.org

Check here to see if your county uses ES&S voting machines.

http://www.sos.state.ia.us/pdfs/elections/CoVoteSystem.pdf

According to this document, most Iowa counties DO use these machines.

Please write to your county auditor and send her/him this important information.

You can find a complete list of Iowa County Auditors and contact information here.

http://www.sos.state.ia.us/elections/auditors/AuditorsList.html

If your county uses ES&S iVotronics voting machines, your county probably has these problems. Show Dr. Doug Jones' "workaround" to your county officials.

Also, include a link to "Myth Breakers for Election Officials," a 67-page document written specifically for county auditors.


Thank you.