Fairfax Judge Orders Logs Of Voting Machines Inspected

Washington Post ^ | November 6, 2003 | David Cho

[pearlz]

It took more than 21 hours from the time polls closed Tuesday night for Fairfax County, the putative high-tech capital of the region, to get final election results from its new, computerized vote machines.

Widespread problems in the system, which the county paid $3.5 million to install, also opened the door to possible election challenges by party leaders and candidates.

School Board member Rita S. Thompson (R), who lost a close race to retain her at-large seat, said yesterday that the new computers might have taken votes from her. Voters in three precincts reported that when they attempted to vote for her, the machines initially displayed an "x" next to her name but then, after a few seconds, the "x" disappeared.

In response to Thompson's complaints, county officials tested one of the machines in question yesterday and discovered that it seemed to subtract a vote for Thompson in about "one out of a hundred tries," said Margaret K. Luca, secretary of the county Board of Elections.

"It's hard not to think that I have been robbed," said Thompson, whose 77,796 recorded votes left her 1,662 shy of reelection. She is considering her next step, and said she was wary of challenging the election results: "I'm not sure the county as a whole is up for that. I'm not sure I'm up for that."

[pearlz]

I think going to this electronic voting is a big mistake. None of the software is tested adequately. It is too easy to commit fraud. There should be paper backup for everything.

[muawiyah]

The old electronic system in use in Fairfax didn't have these problems. It didn't use paper either. As a matter of fact, systems with paper, one form or the other, counted manually or electronically, scanned or punched, are fraught with error and are not a fair comparison to what electronic systems can do.

Odds are the defects in the Fairfax system were a consequence of an attempt at vote fraud by the old Byrne Machine.

[muawiyah]

The old electronic system in use in Fairfax didn't have these problems. It didn't use paper either. As a matter of fact, systems with paper, one form or the other, counted manually or electronically, scanned or punched, are fraught with error and are not a fair comparison to what electronic systems can do.

Odds are the defects in the Fairfax system were a consequence of an attempt at vote fraud by the old Byrne Machine.

[Coop]

More follow-up. I personally found the machines easy to use, but our precinct also ran into problems trying to call in (via modem) the results. As Angelwood mentioned elsewhere some voters did not like the openness (less privacy), but positive comments outweighed negative ones.

[bmwcyle]

A man called Larry brought the voting machines to our church for us to see and try out. Larry is a member of out church but I would not give you two cents for this man. He has stiff a few people on businees deals.