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# Fw: Election problems

- To: <support@gesn.com>
- Subject: Fw: Election problems
- From: "Steve Knecht" <skglobal@earthlink.net>
- Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 20:48:46 -0800

    The following email is from Humboldt.  This is in addition to Fresno and
    Marin problems.  We are developing a critical mass of failures here which
    will affect references and sales.
    -----Original Message-----
    From: lindsey_mcwilliams_at_county-po@co.humboldt.ca.us
    <lindsey_mcwilliams_at_county-po@co.humboldt.ca.us>
    To: skglobal@earthlink.net <skglobal@earthlink.net>
    Cc: lou_leeper_at_elec-po@mail.co.humboldt.ca.us
    <lou_leeper_at_elec-po@mail.co.humboldt.ca.us>;
    jmurray@humgate.co.humboldt.ca.us <jmurray@humgate.co.humboldt.ca.us>
    Date: Thursday, March 09, 2000 11:17 AM
    Subject: Election problems

    >Steve,
    >
    >We had an unusually high level of problems all day long and past closing
    that
    >I'd like to share with you.  Problems ran from AccuVotes not feeding
    ballots to
    >suddenly corrupt memory cards to widespread communications failures.  Here
    are
    >the highlights:
    >
    >Several AccuVotes that have successfully accepted ballots refused to do so
    >Tuesday.  Some were brought back to life by turning them off and back on
    (some
    >took several restarts; a couple required restarting several times through
    the
    >day) while four or five required replacing in the field.  We'll test what
    we can
    >and, at the very least, send the known failures back to Texas.
    >
    >I don't know what to make of the corrupt memory cards because I hadn't seen
    this
    >happen before.  Cards that tested OK last week and fired up OK over the
    weekend
    >failed Tuesday morning.  I think these were all 32K cards.  One precinct
    failed
    >twice.
    >
    >As aggravating as touring the County following AccuVote problems was for me
    (200
    >miles or so driving), the ubiquitous modem failures were worse.  41
    votecenters
    >transmitted as planned, 27 did not.  The common refrain from precincts
    calling
    >in was the AccuVote going immediately from dialing to redialing without
    actually
    >dialing.  After we heard this several times, we had the machines brought in
    for
    >uploading.
    >
    >Attached in a ZIP file is an annotated PDF AV Status Report and copies of
    the AV
    >Server Log file and Poster Log file from Tuesday night.  I'm not sure how
    your
    >date stamping works, but 952194227 corresponds to 19:56:16 Tuesday night
    when we
    >started COM4.
    >
    >Calls came in steadily until 8:51; by then we were getting a lot of calls
    from
    >inspectors who couldn't transmit.  While I don't think this was the heart
    of the
    >problem, I think something was wrong with either COM4 or the Digiboard at
    that
    >port about that time.  The last successful upload on COM4 was Vcenter 250
    at
    >20:49:45.  The remaining successful transmissions came in on COM5 and 6.
    >Looking at the AV Server Log file around 952490943 where vc250 on COM4
    shows up,
    >COM6 is uploading vc113, and COM5 picks up vc175 a vew seconds later.
    >
    >COM5 and 6 pick up two more Votecenters after that, and COM5 picks up
    vc200091
    >at 952492403 (21:13)and then picks up the last call from vc29 at 21:24:50
    >(952493090).  I really don't know how to explain this.  Our plan is to
    finish
    >the election, duplicate the database, retest transmissions in the basement,
    and
    >then go out to the polling places and test them there.
    >
    >Let me know what you think.
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >Lindsey McWilliams
    >Administrative Services Director
    >825 5th Street, Room 103
    >Eureka, CA  95501
    >707-268-2544
    >707-445-7533 fax
    >lmcwilliams@co.humboldt.ca.us
    >
    >
    >

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