E-Voting Glitch: 19,000 Voters, 144,000 Votes

nick_davison writes "The Indianapolis Star is reporting the latest case of 'interesting' E-voting results. Tuesday's Boone County election, using MicroVote software returned 144,000 votes from 19,000 registered voters. After much panicking and tracking down the bug, the actual number of votes turned out as 5,352. With yet another mistake, does anyone still trust closed-source electronic voting?"

MicroVote Sucks

[khalua]

Have you tried MacroVote?

Let's just hope...

[Bobulusman]

...That when they 'fixed' the problem, they did it right. Since they probably didn't want the local county's IT guy to look at the source and fix the problem, there's no guarantee they got it right this time, either.

Re:MicroVote Sucks

[Bohnanza]

It sounds like Macrovote is what it actually does.

There no longer seems to be any reason to vote. Since our corporate overlords now control the elections, and control the candidates anyway, we should simply let them choose directly.

Blackadder

[Walterk]

Vincent Hanna: One voter; 16,472 votes. A slight anomaly...?

Edmund: Not really, Mr. Hanna -- you see, Baldrick may look like a monkey who's been put in a suit and then strategically shaved, but he is a brilliant politician. The number of votes I cast is simply a reflection of how firmly I believe in his policies.

True politics [powertie.org]

Re:What is wrong with an "X"??

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure there're thousands of invalid votes with ticks on the ballot instead of X's.

Reminds me of Office Space...

[donnyspi]

"I probably just put a decimal point in the wrong spot. I always forget some mundane detail..." lol

So ...

[cablepokerface]

Is this how Bush was elected?

Actually, their software *IS* open source

[femto]

Here it is:

#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
printf( "%i\n", rand() );

return(0);
}

For Chicago...

[jackb_guppy]

This would be a great machine, Boss Daly could get back into office without the help of his current constituents... the graveyard vote.

Re:Closed source?

[pigscanfly.ca]

Depending on your world outlook , it very well could be.

If you subscribe to the notion that humanities job is to discover/understand everything it can about our unvirse/life then opensource very well could be the answer to life it self . Or at least part of the solution .

Don't Worry, Be Happy

[Detritus]

The new Indianapolis Mayor, Richard Daley Jr., said there is nothing to be concerned about. Indiana Governor Martha Daley called to congratulate him on his victory.

141,000 votes from 19,000 people...

[Anonymous Coward]

What is this software, a new module for Sim-Chicago?

Perfect solution

[amightywind]

MicroVote software returned 144,000 votes from 19,000 registered voters.

This is the perfect solution for democrats in the upcoming presidential election.

How computers will finally reveal AI

[Jonathan Platt]

I'm just waiting for the first set of votes to come back with either Deep Blue or HAL in the number one spot.

Sure MicroVote will say that it wasn't their fault. 10 trillion voters obviously wanted a computer run US.

Lets be honest even their website looks like 8th rate programming.

Re:Actually, their software *IS* open source

[Anonymous Coward]

The many eyes see now that they forgot to initialize the random generator with srand(). This was shallow.

Re:Does anyone trust closed source anything?

[azzy]

Millions of eyes makes a bug fucking scary!!!

Diebold v MicroVote

[TubeSteak]

Diebold: Diebold is a global leader in providing high-quality cutting-edge direct recording electronic (DRE) voting solutions to jurisdictions of all sizes

MicroVote: The leader in Direct Recording Electronic Voting Technology... MicroVote is a leading supplier of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting technology.

Now for the anagrams
Diebold [wordsmith.org] My fave: Be Dildo
MicroVote [wordsmith.org]My other Fave: Evict Room

slashdot = SAD SLOTH & SHALL DOS

Found the bug

[AVee]

The Amount_paid variable was used where it should have been Vote_Count...

Re:What is wrong with an "X"??

[Anonymous Coward]

The US has turned into a nation full of people with a) no patience and b) a very short attention span. We want what we want, and we want it now!

And what we want is *punch* ... Pat Buchanan for President!! no wait....

Re:Blackadder

[Anonymous Coward]

This proves that United States is indeed the most democratic country in the world. After all Sadam only got about 100% of the population to vote, which seems puny compared to these 700%

Anybody notice the number 144000

[Dusabre]

The number 144000 has a great significance in many religions/beliefs.

Google on 144000 [google.com]

Personally I think that Judgement Day is nigh and that the AntiChrist will use an evoting machine to gain control of the world.

Or perhaps not.

Re:What is wrong with an "X"??

[JediTrainer]

When you're done voting, you give your ballot with sleeve to the attendant, and you watch (you have to watch, they make you stay) as it goes into something resembling a giant laser printer

Maybe it was just me, but I thought it looked more like a gigantic shredder.

Re:What is wrong with an "X"??

[AbbyNormal]

Sir I take particular offense to your statement

b) a very short attention span.

I am very well capable of keeping my attention fixated on a point that is well worth my....Hey! Another article on Microsoft doing something bad!

Re:What is wrong with an "X"??

[Tim C]

Ah, but in the US, do they really all show up to vote? For a national election??

He said votes, not voters...

Re:MicroVote Sucks

[Negatyfus]

I can't believe they didn't use SlackVote. Everybody knows MicroVote is evil!

Re:Accounting

[clickety6]

So an IT director and a number of flunkies have rewritten the results of an election.

That's disgusting! Everybody knows that rewriting the results of an election is a job for the courts!

Re:MicroVote Sucks

[Geek of Tech]

Now, electronic voting has something in common with slashdot polls!

And I quote...

# Don't complain about lack of options. You've got to pick a few when you do multiple choice. Those are the breaks.
# Feel free to suggest poll ideas if you're feeling creative. I'd strongly suggest reading the past polls first.
# This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.

Good to see the legal system is getting some ideas from the fine folks of slashdot!

Looking forward...

[jmv]

...to seeing Bush re-elected with a 2 billion vote majority.

Re:Accounting

[symbolic]

How do the good people of Boone County know that the new answer is correct?

Maybe they took a vote.