Broward Ballot Blunder Changes Amendment Result

[shawn703]

The Broward County Elections Department has egg on its face after a computer glitch misreported a key amendment race, according to Local 10 political reporter Michael Putney.

Amendment 4, which would allow Miami-Dade and Broward counties to hold a future election to decide if slot machines should be allowed at racetracks, was thought to be tied. But now that a computer glitch for machines counting absentee ballots has been exposed, it turns out the amendment passed.


"The software is not geared to count more than 32,000 votes in a precinct. So what happens when it gets to 32,000 is the software starts counting backward," said Broward County Mayor Ilene Lieberman.


more...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20041105/lo_wplg/2439900

[shawn703]

1. Anyone notice how ES&S keeps showing up in these glitch stories? n/t

[VegasWolf]

13. ES&S has a documented back door that can change the outcome

of a race. ES&S has known about this for three versions
of their software. See blackbox voter org.

[leetrisck]

2. We have a "computer glitch" sitting in the White House

don't you think?

[Bozita]

3. That Yahoo story gets a "5" from me

good post

[Fridays Child]

4. 5!

[Wickerman]

5. Nothing to see here

just because this is a documented error doesn't mean that there coudld've been such an error (or any error) in anything as important as the Presidency. Dont worry that this is FLORIDA.

Nothing to see here - move along.

[kikiek]

6. Would you use this software at your bank?

[shawn703]

9. LOL

Yeah, there'd be a huge investigation if someone was supposed to have $64,000 in their bank account but found they had $0 because it started counting backwards. But this is only a presidential election, not that important.

[Roy]

18. That is the question.......

That everyone in charge of conducting and overseeing election results should be forced to answer!

[freetobegay]

7. Only in Florida.

[htuttle]

8. Not 32000 votes. I'd bet 32767

That's the maximum value of a 'short integer' in computer lingo. When you exceed it with a short integer variable, it 'overflows' and turns over kind of like an odometer.

EVEN FIRST YEAR COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENTS KNOW TO CHECK FOR COUNTER OVERFLOWS!!! ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE USING SHORT INTEGERS!!

Why the hell even use a short int for a counter? Saving 2 bytes isn't going to help much anywhere.

I give them a D- in this assignment. The only reason it's not an F is because the software at least launched and ran.


I don't know if I can even express to a non-programmer how lame this error is. Imagine if you took your car to a mechanic to get the oil changed, and they forgot to put the filter back on. It's that lame.

...

Or if GM designed a car where you couldn't open the front and back doors at the same time. It's THAT lame.

[trogdor]

14. They were using a SIGNED 16-bit short integer!

An unsigned int goes up to 65535, but doesn't include negative values. Nevertheless, it's a no-brainer to use an unsigned long integer (32, or even 64 bits) for stuff like this.

These people were charged with designing balloting software that affects national elections, yet it was apparent they were about the most incompetent programmers you could possibly find.

[htuttle]

15. It's actually dumber than the Y2K error

And back then, at least they had an excuse to want to save a few bytes.

There is ABSOLUTELY no excuse or rational reason to use a short as a vote counter variable nowdays. Memory is way too cheap -- there's no reason to save two bytes!

[makhno]

21. It's unbelievable

You'd think every line of code in software the is the gatekeeper of our democracy would be audited by multiple parties before being shipped.

[NoBorders]

20. Is that the same as buffer overflows?

that hackers used to hack MS applications?

[Barrett808]

22. You know, memory is cheap nowadays

Why not use an unsigned long? That gives you 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 votes.

A signed long gives you 9,223,372,036,854,775,807.

No overflow worries.

Unless your code is unbelievably buggy.

[Lil]

24. "did not affect the outcome of any other races" ???

"The glitch did not affect the outcome of any other races. The vote-counting error did affect totals for amendments 4 through 8. But amendment 4 was the only race for which the corrected numbers changed the result. "

Does this sound correct?

[fwiff]

10. The software counts backwards?!

That's a *glitch*? Yikes. No problems with e-voting.
Help me.

[sjeberling]

11. If overflowed twice, 80000 = 14464

Overflow problems become even worse when a second overflow occurs.
The numbers would appear to be going up as ususal, just missing the 64k in votes. All results from Florida would be questionable.

Computers and Software did not cause the error, the people who worte the software did.

Free America

[polmaven]

17. I was going to ask....

Wouldn't this make ALL results questionable? Not only the really important stuff like gambling, but the insignificant results like president and senator too?

Oh, and wellcome to DU!!!! We look forward to seeing you more!

[MrPrax]

12. A lot of errors are trickling out...

In the great state of Ohio:

AP wire story:

Computer error at voting machine gives Bush 3,893 extra votes

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A computer error with a voting machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct.

Franklin County's unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry's 260 votes in Precinct 1B. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.

Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said Bush received 365 votes there. The other 13 voters who cast ballots either voted for other candidates or did not vote for president.

Damschroder said he received some calls Thursday from people who saw the error when reading the list of poll results on the election board's Web site.

He said the error would have been discovered when the official canvass for the election is performed later this month.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10103910.htm

Oh well, they WOULD have found it and presumeably all the other little unimportant glitches...

[daleo]

16. It would be funny if war and peace didn't hang in the balance

You might think the company would be held accountable for this incompetence, but it is more likely they will get a bonus. Wink, wink.

[tandem5]

19. That's just not enough information...

Without further clarification as to why only "totals for amendments 4 through 8" were impacted and nothing else, I can't see why that "flaw" wouldn't have an effect in *every* section of that ballot.

[soup]

23. Computer glitch? Wasn't it attributed to human error yesterday?

Wish they'd make up their minds. fell out of the sky? or fell out of the machine?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x958896

ryban (51 posts) Thu Nov-04-04 07:21 PM

Original message
(Florida) Slots measure wins approval with absentee votes added in
Edited on Thu Nov-04-04 08:14 PM by ryban

Slots measure wins approval with absentee votes added in

By JACKIE HALLIFAX
Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A proposal that opens the door to slot machines at race tracks and jai alai frontons in South Florida won approval Thursday, avoiding a possible recount after elections officials in Broward County discovered thousands of absentee votes missed in an electronic tally on Election Day.

The vast majority of the batch of 79,000 absentee ballots added late approved the initiative. That made all the difference in the outcome, swamping the narrow lead that opponents had clung to since Tuesday.

State and local elections officials said the ballot oversight was because of human error in computer programming, not a technical glitch. A leader of No Casinos said opponents would ask Broward County for a re-count anyway, but Secretary of State Glenda Hood said that wasn't possible under state law.

Passage of Amendment 4 means Broward and Miami-Dade commissions can ask their voters in a referendum if they want to allow slot machines at seven tracks and jai alai frontons. Passage was strong in both counties, suggesting voters might take the second step.

<snip>

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/apnews/stories/11...
---

[jpak]

25. But..but..but...Glenda Hood sez 'puterz don't make no errors

This is Satan's work for sure!