Hart system has no auditable report

[Neal McBurnett <neal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Summary:

 Hart said they expect over 40 counties in Colorado to use their
 system.  But they don't support the audits required under Colorado
 law.

I think the major outcome of the demo for the Boulder RFP Evaluation
Team (RFPET) yesterday was that the Hart system doesn't produce a
report that can be audited.  We've reported this many times over the
last year for the BallotNow system, and they couldn't provide one for
the eSlate system either yesterday.  They say the county must do a
recount instead.  But state law specifically requires an audit.

To be a bit more precise, an audit requires something to be audited.
The process must work something like this:

 1: Count votes with the system.

 2: Produce an auditable report, listing results for each race, for each
 eSlate device.

 3: Randomly select devices and races to audit.

 4: Hand-count the paper records of the races on the given devices
 (without telling the counters what the results should be).

 5: Compare the numbers.

But Hart can't produce the report noted in step 2.  Instead they did a
recount, by taking the memory card from the device and running it thru
their Tally software a second time.  That is a recount.

But we need audits not recounts.  Audits confirm that the actual count
worked properly.  They check the published election outcome.  Recounts
are basically additional tests.  Recounts can be produce different
results either because of bugs or manipulation.  We wrote the law in
order to focus on audits, not recounts.

Neal McBurnett                 http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/
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