SOURCE: wtic.com

Election Audit: Some Cards Faulty; Devices Used Were Correctly Programmed

Matt Dwyer Reporting

Click here to read the full Post-Election Audit of Memory Cards for the November 2008 Elections

Click here to read the full Statistical Analysis of the Post Election Audit Data 2008 November Elections

A UConn Voting Technology Research Center audit finds all of the memory cards actually used in electronic voting machines during the November, 2008 election in Connecticut were correctly programmed, and most of the hand recounts matched the machine counts.  

But the audit found about 9 percent of the memory cards could not be used because of problems found before they were put in place.  Replacement cards had to be rushed to one voting location, when none of the original cards would work.

Shvartsman said he suspects the faulty memory cards were the result of low batteries.  He says the cards are supposed to detect drained batteries, but they may not being doing so.

The audit was conducted at the request of the secretary of the state, to address the concerns of some state officials about the accuracy and security of new electronic voting machines being used in Connecticut.

Computer Science Professor Alexander Shvartsman says the audit looked into some apparent discrepancies between the election programming cards before the election, and after.

"All of these issues were resolved successfully," Shvartsman said.  "For example, it turns out one candidate passed on just before the election, and the new candidate's name was inserted."

Shvartsman said in elections where the machine results were different from hand recounts, problems were found with the hand recounts.

He said when a candidate was endorsed by more than one party, election workers sometimes gave votes to the correct candidate, but on the wrong party line.

The report said "(1) all cards used in the election were properly programmed, (2) cards with junk data continues to be a problem, and additional analysis is in progress to determine the cause, (3) a number of cards show that the pre-election procedures are not followed uniformly and that cards continue to be duplicated; we recommend that a stronger policy statement is needed on handling the cards before and during the election and disallowing memory card duplication."