Did the ERC review the Yakima
problems with HART scanning? (Pasted in below.)
Al
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Pezzillo [mailto:jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 1:26 PM
To: CVV Voting
Subject: False Statements in Linda Salas Campaign Literature
From a single page tri-fold brochure I was sent after the
Caucus,
mostly it's a very, very defensive piece that tries to offer a
retort
to the competitor's campaign piece. This one is signed by the
"Committee to Re-elect Linda Salas"
"A thorough and comprehensive testing process was implemented
during
the 2005 elections to ensure that ballots are free from defects
that
could cause delays. None were found and both elections went
smoothly
and results were available promptly."
I guess a fold that goes through an option box causing a vote to
be
recorded where none was marked isn't a "defect"?
"None were found" ?
Is that the "truth"?
Joe
Joe Pezzillo
PO Box J
Boulder,
CO 80306
USA
jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx
303-938-8850
From: Al Kolwicz
[mailto:alkolwicz@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006
11:19 AM
To: Al Kolwicz
Subject: PRESS 10102006 [HART] Yakima County, Washington-
white vertical line
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Voting
Systems User Warning: Hart InterCivic Ballot Now
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By John Gideon,
Information Manager, VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA
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October 10, 2005
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Voting
System: Hart InterCivic Ballot Now optical scan system, using Kodak i800
Series Scanner
Problems Found by Election Officials: During a hand recount of ballots
counted in Yakima County, Washington, it was discovered that 24 properly
marked ballots had been counted as undervotes and had not been tallied. An
investigation was carried out by Hart InterCivic employees who looked at the
ballot images. The examination revealed that 24 ballot images contained a
white vertical line spanning the entire length of the ballot. The line ran
through the left portion of all option boxes in the 4th column of each
ballot.
Hart reported that
since the white line “whited out” a portion of each option box,
Ballot Now was unable to detect at least 90 percent of each “target box”
and therefore classified each contest in the 4th column of each ballot as a
Damaged Contest. In this case, the 4th column included contests for Congress,
Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, and State Treasurer.
Hart also confirmed that during processing of the batch in question, the
option to Autoresolve Damaged Contests was selected. Consequently, Ballot Now
(in Autoresolve mode) confirmed and recorded the damaged contests as
undervoted.
In another reported incident, officials in Boulder County, Colorado
discovered that when a fold in the ballot covers an option box, the machine
may misread the ballot. Of 429 test ballots read, seven (1.6%) were misread
because of such a fold.
Solutions: The Hart representative recommended a regular cleaning program for
the scanner during heavy use periods. The “Kodak Series i800 Scanners
User’s Guide” recommends thoroughly cleaning the scanner after
every 8 hours of use. According to the troubleshooting section of the manual,
the white line that caused a miscount of ballots in Yakima County
can be directly attributed to dirty imaging guides. VotersUnite and
VoteTrustUSA agree with the Hart representative but, because people’s
votes are involved we recommend a thorough cleaning more often than
recommended by Kodak.
The Boulder County problem may not be as simple to
fix. The county is proposing that all ballots be inspected, and any with a
crease through an option box will be individually resolved.
In all cases, VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA strongly recommend that the
“Autoresolve Damaged Contests” option not be selected. Any
damaged or questionable ballots must be inspected by an election worker to
determine why the system identified the contest as damaged.
VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA also point to both of these situations as
substantial evidence for why audits MUST be conducted by hand counting a
percentage of the original paper ballot batches and comparing that tally to
the computer’s tally of scanned images of those ballots and to the
total from the tabulator.
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