Voting Problems in Arkansas

[Melissa G]

What a mess! Check this out! No voting machines functioned properly. Passwords given out to close out the machines 'early', What an easily manufactured scenario for tampering.
mg


Voting problems

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 10:49 PM CDT

Programming causes difficulties in Tuesday's primary election


By Warren Watkins

The Daily Citizen

Primary election results were delayed and disputed Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning after NO (emphasis mine) voting machines functioned properly at any of the 32 White County voting sites Tuesday.

By late Wednesday night, a set of revised unofficial vote totals revealed Mark Derrick - deemed the winner earlier Wednesday - had actually lost to Tom Hughes in the race for circuit judge, district 17.

A programming error with time settings caused a domino effect of further complications, names were left off ballots and a vote-counting machine failed. Candidates, citizens and supporters waited in the second floor courtroom of the White County courthouse until 1 a.m. to get a hard copy of the unofficial results. No preliminary results were announced during the night and little if any explanations were provided as to the delay.

snip

Because the machines store votes in five internal locations and provide a paper print-out, no votes were lost in Tuesday's vote, Thomas said, but tabulating the votes became a problem.

The time on the voting machines was set one hour later than real time.

http://www.thedailycitizen.com/articles/2008/05/22/news/top_stories/top01.txt

[Melissa G]

1. John Gideon's summation from DVN

The minor problems experienced by voters in Arkansas that I reported
here two days ago seem to have been a lot worse than was reported by the
media on Tuesday; at least in White Co. Not one voting machine
functioned properly at any of 32 polling places in the county. In one
race there was a 3,954-vote disparity. That problem was cleared-up only
after the losing candidate found the disparity and called it to the
attention of officials. Also, the internal clocks were never set for
Daily Light Savings time so the machines would not open on time and
would not close on time. Also on the list of errors was candidate’s
names left off of the ballot.

My comment:
I'm sure from the story that this was all just life 'happening' with voting machines, but it does point out a lot of exploitable scenarios.
mg