4503 Electronic Votes Lost in NC

ctnp writes "While it wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome, 4530 votes were lost in one North Carolina county after one machine was configured to store 3,005 votes instead of the expected 10,500. 'The machines flash a warning message when there is no more room for storing ballots. 'Evidently, this message was either ignored or overlooked,' he [Jack Gerbel, CEO of machine-providing UniLect] wrote.'"

Accountability?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Local officials said UniLect Corp., the maker of the county's electronic voting system, told them that each storage unit could handle 10,500 votes, but the limit was actually 3,005 votes."
So you have UniLect Corp. which needs to be held accountable for lying about the capabilities of their system, and you have the local officials who need to be held accountable for failing to veryify or evaluate the claims of of UniLect Corp. It seems to me that UniLect should be sued and the officials should be jailed. If thats not possible then a bunch of angry South Carolinans with pitch forks and torches should have a word with these folks.

4530? That's nothing.

[BortQ]

4530 is nothing compared to all the votes that I knocked off when I hacked that Florida machine. You'd think they would get suspicious if you stay in the booth for sooo long, but I guess they are used to the slow-pokes in the sunshine state.

Anyway, thanks /. for giving me all the info about evoting fraud that I needed before the election. I was expecting for it not to work, but the machines are dead fuckin simple.

God bless America, and my h4xxor 5killz 2.

Re:what were they using?

[gl4ss]

*Now what kind of idiot specifies a system where you can only store 10000 ballots?*

probably the kind of a salesman that makes the client pay per capabilities...

"yes it's 10$ per vote".

or they were using game&watches as storage.

Re:Shock!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really. The reason Ohio was so slow is that outsourced its vote counting to Afganistan.

4503 votes lost, 3647 gained...

[Rob Simpson]

...in Franklin County [franklincountyohio.gov], Gahanna 1-B. (from kos [dailykos.com])

Franklin County, OH: Gahanna 1-B Precinct
638 TOTAL BALLOTS CAST

US Senator:
Fingerhut (D) - 167 votes
Voinovich (R) - 300 votes

US President:
Kerry (D) - 260 votes
Bush (R) - 4,258 votes

Hmmm...

Re:what were they using?

[orkysoft]

10 REM REMEMBER THIS KIND OF SHIT?
20 REM IT'S BEEN YEARS FOR ME, BUT IT TURNS OUT I CAN STILL WRITE IT...
30 REM THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO BIAS IN THIS POLL PROGRAM, I SWEAR TO GOD!
40 INPUT "HOW MANY VOTES TO STORE? ", MAXVOTES
50 DIM VOTES(MAXVOTES - 1)
60 FOR I = 0 TO MAXVOTES - 1: VOTES(I) = 1: NEXT I
70 CURRENTVOTE = 0
80 REPEAT
90 INPUT "DO YOU WANT TO VOTE FOR (1) PRESIDENT BUSH OR (2) THE FLIPFLOPPER KERRY? ", ANSWER
100 IF ANSWER != 1 AND ANSWER != 2 THEN ANSWER = 1
110 IF CURRENTVOTE < MAXVOTES THEN VOTES(CURRENTVOTE) = ANSWER ELSE PRINT "NOT ENOUGH ROOM TO STORE THIS VOTE!"
120 CURRENTVOTE = CURRENTVOTE + 1
130 GOSUB 1000 : REM DETERMINE IF ELECTION IS OVER YET
140 UNTIL ELECTIONOVER = 1
150 BUSHVOTES = 0 : KERRYVOTES = 0
160 FOR I = 0 TO MAXVOTES - 1
170 IF VOTES(I) = 1 THEN BUSHVOTES = BUSHVOTES + 1
180 IF VOTES(I) = 2 THEN KERRYVOTES = KERRYVOTES + 1
190 NEXT I
200 PRINT "BUSH GOT " + BUSHVOTES + " VOTES."
210 PRINT "KERRY GOT " + KERRYVOTES + " VOTES."
220 PRINT "HAVE A NICE DAY!"
230 END
1000 REM I DON'T RECALL HOW TO GET THE TIME FROM BASIC
1010 REM BUT THERE WERE SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF BASIC
1020 REM I LIKED GFA BASIC BACK IN THE DAY...
1030 REM NO LINE NUMBERS, ONLY ONE INSTRUCTION PER LINE
1040 REM THIS IS JUST WRITTEN TO WHAT I IMAGINE A REALLY BASIC BASIC WOULD BE LIKE.
1050 RETURN

Re:what were they using?

[MarkGriz]

Boole, Sheet, and Shuvler
Attorneys at Law
=-=-=-=-=-=-

orkysoft
Slashdot ID #93727
http://slashdot.org/~orkysoft

Re: Copyright Infringement

Dear orkysoft

We represent UniLect Corporation ("Unilect"), maker of the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. voting system. [unilect.com]

Unilect is the owner of copyrighted software relating to its electronic voting machines ("Unilect Property").

It has recently come to our clients' attention that you appear to be in possesion of copyrighted material, in particular, copyrighted software used in our clients' voting machines.

Further, it appears you have posted Unilect Property to the web site Slashdot.org, as witnessed here [slashdot.org]

This posting infringes Unilect's copyrights because the Unilect Property was reproduced, placed on public display, and is being distributed from this web site without Unilect's consent, and has caused irreparable harm to Unilect.

The purpose of this letter is to advise you of our clients' rights and to seek your agreement to the following: (1) to remove and destroy the Unilect Property contained at the web site identified in the attached chart and (2) to destroy any backup copies of the Unilect Property in your possession or under your control.

Please confirm, in writing, that you have complied with the above requests.

To the best of my knowledge and belief the information contained in this notification is accurate as of the time of compilation and, under penalty of perjury, I certify that I am authorized to act on behalf of Unilect.

Our clients reserve their position insofar as costs and damages caused by infringing activity with respect to the Unilect Property. Our clients also reserve their right to seek injunctive relief to prevent further unauthorized use of Unilect Property, including reproduction, distribution, public display, or the creation of derivative works, pending your response to this letter. We suggest you contact your legal advisors to obtain legal advice as to your position.

We await your response within 24 hours.

Very truly yours,

Phil F. Sheet