Jeremiah Akin's observations about Riverside County's
Logic & Accuracy testing.
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I recently took part in the Riverside County Logic and Accuracy Testing Board that met on 9 September 2003. This board was put together to observe testing of the touchscreen voting system that Riverside County uses.

There were several problems I saw with the running of the test. Among them were:
  • People signed a form stating that they had witnessed the test and had verified the results, before the test was completed.
  • The test was run in a pre-election mode of the vote counting software. No test was run on the software while it was in the configuration that it would be in on election day.
  • The observation board was given a seriously misleading description of the make up of the voting system that Riverside County uses. Sequoia Voting Systems, the manufacturer of the touchscreen systems, also gives a very misleading description of their products on their website and in their brochures.

  • Please see my interview with Salon - http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/10/15/riverside_voting_machines/index_np.html
  • Click here to see my report. (try right clicking the link and selecting "save target as" to save a copy of the report to your computer.)
  • Click here to see a scanned copy of the observation form that people signed.
  • See the note and letter from Mischelle Townsend (Riverside County's Registrar of Voters).


    Could it be that Sequoia is trying to spin their products?

    Sequoia Voting Systems produces a system for running elections that has two basic parts: kiosks that collect votes; and a program called WinEDS that counts and reports the votes, and helps with the administration of the election. The voting kiosk system that Riverside County has purchased uses the AVC Edge to collect votes and WinEDS to count them. The AVC Edge uses a proprietary operating system while WinEDS runs on the Microsoft Windows Operating System. (It should be noted that Sequoia has referred to the Microsoft Platform as "...well known and understood by computer hackers...")

    You would think that if Sequoia says that the Windows operating system is well known and understood by hackers that they would not use it. But they do. The Riverside County Registrar of Voters is running WinEDS on Microsoft Windows XP. The Registrar of Voters also uses the SQL Server database to hold ballot information(SQL Server needs to run on the Windows operating system).

    Whether or not you are a fan of Microsoft Windows, you have to ask yourself: If Sequoia says that Windows is well known and understood by hackers, why are they using it?

    Also, why does Sequoia mention the fact that the AVC Edge uses a proprietary operating system numerous times, while not mentioning an equal number of times that you need to use the Microsoft Windows operating system to read and count the results that are collected on the AVC Edge?

    If you go to the Sequoia's website you can see the phrase “proprietary operating system” all over the place. How come you don't see them mentioning their use of Windows anywhere near as many times as you see them mention their proprietary operating system? After all, every time they use the AVC Edge to run an election they use Microsoft Windows.

    Could it be that Sequoia is trying to spin their product to make people think that they are not as reliant on Microsoft Windows as they really are? Please take a look at their web site and decide for yourself.


    More than just a few

    In an article in eweek, Mischelle Townsend was quoted as saying "Only a few academics are asking for paper verification." (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1306766,00.asp)

    Check out the list of people who have signed Dr. David Dill's Resolution on Electronic Voting.
  • click here to see over 1700 technologists that have signed up so far (this includes industry professionals and computer scientists from prestigious universities)
  • click here to see over 5700 individuals who have signed up so far.

    While you are on the verifiedvoting.org site check out the navigation bar on the left of the page to see the list of lawyers, political scientists, elected officials, accountants, and organizations that have also signed the resolution that calls for a voter-verifiable audit trail. While you are there please take a second to sign the resolution.

    Take a look at the list of US Representatives who co-sponsor H.R.2239 - a bill that amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent record of each ballot.

    Also, please join the more than 75,000 people who have signed on with Martin Luther King III and ActForChange to demand a voter-verified paper trail.


    • Please send comments to riversidevoter@yahoo.com

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