Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 09/04/04)


Miami-Dade County, Florida. August, 2004. ES&S.
14,253 voters file complaints reporting problems -- both old and new.

The iVotronic touch-screen machines -- the ones with the software bugs that caused an uproar last May -- showed evidence of the same problems in the August primary. Not only was the low battery problem (which ES&S claimed was repaired) still impacting the elections, problems also showed up with the features that are supposed to allow blind voters to vote independently.

The county received 14,253 complaint forms filled out by voters about these and other election-day problems.*

A survey of calls for assistance from poll workers to the elections department's "war room" on primary day shows three types of complaints:

The iVotronic's ADA model, an audio ballot machine meant for the visually impaired, stumped poll workers throughout the day by ''freezing up'' or switching to a ''white screen,'' according to the forms election workers at the calling center were required to fill out for every call for help.

Complaints showed that poll workers faced with "dead" iVotronics discovered the machines came to life again after workers were instructed to plug them into different electrical outlets at precinct sites.

And frequently, poll workers reported problems with the iVotronics that were traced to low batteries.

* Electronic voting machines had hitches, but no glitches The Miami Herald. September 2, 2004. BY Luisa Yanez.

See: ES&S in the News


The success of Tuesday's elections [referenced above]
underscores what we have known for a long time:
The iVotronic voting system is extremely accurate,
reliable, secure, and easy for voters to use.
~ Aldo Tesi
ES&S's president and CEO