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Diebold says patch will fix poll books

Associated Press - Tom Stuckey 25 Sept. 2006

SEP. 25 5:47 P.M. ET The maker of the electronic poll books used to check in voters at the polls said it has fixed the problem that plagued the equipment on Maryland's primary election day.

The company demonstrated a software patch that it said fixes the problem.

A fix for a second problem is at least a day or two away, Thomas Feehan, Maryland project manager for Diebold Inc., said.

Linda Lamone, Maryland elections administrator, said she is pleased with Diebold's quick response, adding she will withhold judgment until all testing is complete.

"If I'm not 100 percent sure that this system is 100 percent operational, it will not be used on Election Day," she said. The alternative would be to return on Nov. 7 to the old system of printed lists of voters kept at each precinct.

The electronic poll books were used for the first time in Maryland in the primary. The poll books are separate from the Diebold touchscreen voting machines that were first used in Maryland in some counties four years ago and were used statewide this year. Feehan and Lamone said there were no significant problems with the voting machines.

Feehan acknowledged that the company was not aware prior to the Sept. 12 election that the electronic poll books would automatically reboot when 40 to 50 voters were checked in at the polls. Memory cards filled up on a field that pops up on the screen to confirm to poll workers that a voter was signed in and a ballot issued, causing the machine to reboot.

The problem did not develop in Georgia, the only other state to use the machines statewide, because it did not use that field, Feehan said. When software was changed to bring up that field in Maryland, the company did not discover the flaw because it did not test enough names on individual machines, he said.

"I would say it was an oversight," Feehan said.

He said the rebooting did not affect the records on who had voted. It caused problems at the polls, however, because judges did not know what was happening or how to respond. Feehan said it took only one to two minutes to restart the machines.

The second significant problem involved reports on primary election day that in some precincts, machines used to check in voters did not always communicate with each other.

Diebold will hold a public test of the electronic poll books on Oct. 2, and Lamone said that will help determine whether they will be used in the general election.

Diebold will have to install the software fix on all 5,500 poll books purchased by Maryland, and Lamone was asked what would happen if the patches aren't installed on time.

"If Diebold wants its equipment to be used in Maryland, they'll get it done," she said.


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