Salon article on pre-election testing of Riverside Co. electronic voting machines

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 09:13:59 -0400
From: Scott Alexander <salex () dsl cis upenn edu>
Subject: Salon article on pre-election testing of Riverside Co. electronic
 voting machines
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>

Salon has an interview with someone who participated in the pre-election
"verification" of Riverside County, CA's touch screen voting machines.

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/10/15/riverside_voting_machines/index.html

[Q:] Sort of a simulation of what would happen during a day of voting.

[A:] Yeah. But the touch screens themselves weren't actually pressed.
Nobody got to touch those. So we didn't see what was on them, and we
didn't see the input that was put into the machine. All that we saw was
the output that came out later. And, I mean -- that's like telling
somebody that your calculator can add 2 plus 2, then pressing some
buttons behind a screen, and then showing them that it says 4.

The votes were put in and they started to run, and at that point we were
told that it would take several hours ... [A couple of hours later] we
went back to see if the test scripts had finished running, but they
hadn't. So at that point we broke for lunch and we were going to come
back to get the results.

I saw several people standing with Mischelle Townsend, and they were
signing this piece of paper. At that point, I didn't know what was on
the piece of paper; otherwise I would have said something right then and
there. I thought it was a type of roll sheet. [Actually, the sheet
certified that the observers had seen the test and believed that
everything looked aboveboard. The form, which Akin refused to sign,
said: "We the undersigned declare that we observed the process of logic
and accuracy testing of voting equipment performed by the Riverside
County Registrar of Voters, as required by law and that all tests
performed resulted in accurate voting of all units tested, including
both touch screen and absentee systems."]
--
Scott Alexander <salex () dsl cis upenn edu>

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