Diebold Admits Ohio Machines May Lose Votes 502
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Premier Election Solutions (a subsidiary of Diebold) has acknowledged a flaw that causes the systems to lose votes. It cannot be patched before the election and the machines are used in half of Ohio's counties, but they are issuing guidelines for avoiding the problem that presumably contain a work-around. While Diebold initially blamed anti-virus software for the glitch, they have now discovered that the bug was their own fault for not recording votes to memory when the cards are uploaded in 'certain circumstances' — something their initial analysis missed. It would be nice to hope that Ohio poll workers would be tech-savvy enough to make this a non-issue, but they had poll worker shortages last year and might need tech-savvy people to volunteer."
Blown way out of proportion (Score:5, Funny)
Get over it folks! It will only drop votes for Democrats. So clearly this is an isolated bug.
LEAKED: Source code of innocent bug (Score:5, Funny)
if(vote.Party == "Democrat" && democratvotes % 3)
democratvotes++;
Oopsie!
The circumstances? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The circumstances? (Score:5, Funny)
Well geez, you could at least have inserted yourself as the winning candidate.
*sigh* Supervillainy doesn't have the same draw it used to...
Re:Ohio is the next Florida? (Score:4, Funny)
Ohio already had its chance to be Florida back in 2004. Those two states need to stop hogging the spotlight and let a lesser-known state be Florida for once. I nominate New Mexico.
Re:Tea Party redux (Score:5, Funny)
Want to really help? "Accidentally" run over the crate of voting machines, or allow it to fall off a bridge into a deep river. Do democracy a favor and destroy these abominations, you tech-savvy butterfingers!
Ahem... before the election.
Re:Pen and Paper (Score:3, Funny)
They've thought of that, but no one could figure out what to do when "Mickey Mouse" won the Presidency, so the idea was abandoned.
Re:LEAKED: Source code of innocent bug (Score:3, Funny)
Don't blame me - I actually took 5 minutes to write up a whole function only to discover the stupid Slashdot filter won't let you post source code (Use less funny characters it tells you).
So I had to greatly (and I mean greatly) abbreviate the joke. Now that I've explained it, I'm sure it's 100x funnier.
This new comment system is really messing with my head. I need to sign off now. Can we go back to Slashdot 2005?
Re:The circumstances? (Score:5, Funny)
Oh man, you missed a prime opportunity for a Little Bobby Tables reference.
http://xkcd.com/327/ [xkcd.com]
Shismar for President! (Score:1, Funny)
Your Mickey Mouse is one big stupid dope!
Re:LEAKED: Source code of innocent bug (Score:5, Funny)
Only on Slashdot would you not only get a joke written in C#, but also multiple replies complaining that it's not technically sound.
Not a problem (Score:2, Funny)
Just lie and pick a party. By lying, you are in fact following the principles of either party. Problem solved!
Fix? (Score:2, Funny)
Actually, I was thinking tech-savvy volunteers would be more tempted to fix the elections when Diebold machines are used.
What do you mean by fix ?
I can just see it now, a miracle happens and Barr (L) wins the Presidency!
Cannot be patched before election day? (Score:4, Funny)
I thought they had staff dedicated to this, like the CEO.
There was a poll... (Score:3, Funny)
To go back to the 2005 /. layout.
The majority of the local population here voted for the current version.
Oddly though, just shy of 2/3rds of /. users didn't vote...
-Rick
Re:"Flaw" or (Score:5, Funny)
That was one of the links in the summary....
In the what?
Re:Pen and Paper (Score:3, Funny)
Certain Circumstances (Score:5, Funny)
While Diebold initially blamed anti-virus software for the glitch, they have now discovered that the bug was their own fault for not recording votes to memory when the cards are uploaded in 'certain circumstances'
"Certain circumstances" -- a.k.a "voting"
Re:Fix? (Score:3, Funny)
I would be tempted to fix the machines by a liberal application of salt water. Failing that, thermite. No favoritism here.
Re:Pen and Paper (Score:1, Funny)
But in that case, Schwarzenegger would have gotten 5th place in the 2003 CA recall elections, behind Swarzeneggar, Bustemante, Shwarzenegger, and Bustamante.
Re:Tea Party redux (Score:4, Funny)
Please mod parent up.
Civil disobedience is where we need to be now, to prevent us bleeding-heart liberals from needing to learn how to care for small arms.
Re:Ohio requires partisan poll workers (Score:1, Funny)
What happens when you try to introduce a 3rd party?
Re:Pen and Paper (Score:2, Funny)
Re:LEAKED: Source code of innocent bug (Score:5, Funny)
On Slashdot C# is the joke.
Re:LEAKED: Source code of innocent bug (Score:3, Funny)
That C# is legible enough, even by non-coders (the modulus might throw people, but they'd still get the general idea). The real test would be if the joke was written in perl.
Re:Open Voting (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, we just keep waiting, waiting for things to get worse. And they do. And nothing happens. So we wait longer- and things do get worse.. But it gets worse a little at a time, and we keep procastinating. We need to revolt before it's too late..
Believe me, I'm already revolting.
Re:Open Voting (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, we just keep waiting, waiting for things to get worse. And they do. And nothing happens. So we wait longer- and things do get worse.. But it gets worse a little at a time, and we keep procastinating. We need to revolt before it's too late..
Believe me, I'm already revolting.
So I have heard.