Posted: January 22nd, 2013 | Author: voter | Filed under: Pre Election | Tags: 2012, audit, election, pre, Pre Election, presidential
The University of Connecticut Center for Voting Technology Research (VoTeR Center) performed pre-election audit of the memory cards for the Accu-Vote Optical Scan (AV-OS) tabulators that were used in the November 6, 2012 elections. The cards were programmed by LHS Associates of Salem, New Hampshire, and shipped to Connecticut districts.
Cards were submitted for two reasons per instructions from the SOTS Office (a) one of the four cards per district was to be selected randomly and submitted directly for the purpose of the audit, and (b) any card was to be submitted if it appeared to be unusable. Given that cards in category (a) were to be randomly selected, while all cards in category (b) were supposed to be submitted, and that the cards were submitted without consistent categorization of the reason, this report considers all unusable cards to fall into category (b).
The VoTeR Center received 150 memory cards from 141 districts. Among these 150 cards, 94 (62.6%) fall into category (a). All of these 94 cards were correct. There are 56 cards (37.4% of all cards) that were found to be unusable by the AV-OS, thus falling into category (b). In particular, 53 cards contained apparently random (or ‘junk’) data, one card was unusable by AV-OS, but did not contain random data (this requires further investigation), one card was formatted using AV-OS tabulator, however, it was not programmed , and one card contained only zeros. All these cards were unreadable by the tabulators and could not have been used in an election. Given that such cards were not selected randomly, we estimate that for pre-election audit the percentage of unusable cards is between 1.7% and 9.9% and this range is consistent with the results for prior audits.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: October 16th, 2012 | Author: voter | Filed under: Pre Election | Tags: 2012, audit, election, pre, Pre Election, primary
The University of Connecticut Center for Voting Technology Research (VoTeR Center) performed pre-election audit of the memory cards for the Accu-Vote Optical Scan (AV-OS) tabulators that were used in the August 14, 2012 elections. The cards were programmed by LHS Associates of Salem, New Hampshire, and shipped to Connecticut districts.
Cards were submitted for two reasons per instructions from the SOTS Office (a) one of the four cards per district was to be selected randomly and submitted directly for the purpose of the audit, and (b) any card was to be submitted if it appeared to be unusable. Given that cards in category (a) were to be randomly selected, while all cards in category (b) were supposed to be submitted, and that the cards were submitted without consistent categorization of the reason, this report considers all unusable cards to fall into category (b).
The VoTeR Center received 82 memory cards from 67 districts. Among these 82 cards, 36 (43.9%) fall into category (a). All of these 36 cards were correct. There are 46 cards (56.1% of all cards) that were found to be unusable by the AV-OS, thus falling into category (b). In particular, 44 cards contained apparently random (or ‘junk’) data, one card was unusable by AV-OS, but did not contain random data (this requires further investigation), and one card was formatted using AV-OS tabulator, however, it was not programmed. All these cards were unreadable by the tabulators and could not have been used in an election. Given that such cards were not selected randomly, we estimate that for pre-election audit the percentage of unusable cards is between 1.5% and 17.2% and this range is consistent with the results for prior audits.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: August 29th, 2012 | Author: voter | Filed under: Post Election, Pre Election | Tags: 2012, Post Election, Pre Election, primary, technological
The University of Connecticut Center for Voting Technology Research (VoTeR Center) performed pre-election and post-election audit of the memory cards for the Accu-Vote Optical Scan (AV-OS) tabulators that were used in the April 24, 2012 elections. The cards were programmed by LHS Associates of Salem, New Hampshire, and shipped to Connecticut districts.
Cards were submitted for two reasons per instructions from the SOTS Office (a) one of the four cards per district was to be selected randomly and submitted directly for the purpose of the audit, and (b) any card was to be submitted if it appeared to be unusable. Given that cards in category (a) were to be randomly selected, while all cards in category (b) were supposed to be submitted, and that the cards were submitted without consistent categorization of the reason, this report considers all unusable cards to fall into category (b).
For the pre-election audit, the Center received 124 memory cards from 110 districts. Among these 124 cards, 81 (65.3%) fall into category (a). All of these 81 cards were correct. There are 43 cards (34.7% of all cards) that were found to be unusable by the AV-OS, thus falling into category (b). In particular, 42 cards contained apparently random (or ‘junk’) data, 1 card was unusable by AV-OS, but did not contain random data (this requires further investigation). All these cards were unreadable by the tabulators and could not have been used in an election. Given that such cards were not selected randomly, we estimate that for pre-election audit the percentage of unusable cards is between 1.6% and 9.8% and this is consistent with prior audits.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: April 5th, 2012 | Author: voter | Filed under: Post Election, Pre Election | Tags: 2011, audit, Post Election, Pre Election, technological
The University of Connecticut Center for Voting Technology Research (VoTeR Center) performed pre-election and post-election audits of the memory cards for the Accu-Vote Optical Scan (AV-OS) tabulators used in the November 8, 2011 elections. The cards were programmed by LHS Associates of Salem, New Hampshire, and shipped to Connecticut districts.
For the pre-election audit, the Center received 453 memory cards from 331 districts. Cards were submitted for two reasons per instructions from the SOTS Office (a) one of the four cards per district was to be selected randomly and submitted directly for the purpose of the audit, and (b) any card was to be submitted if it appeared to be unusable. Given that cards in category (a) were to be randomly selected, while all cards in category (b) were supposed to be submitted, and that the cards were submitted without consistent categorization of the reason, this report considers all unusable cards to fall into category (b).
Among these 453 cards, 223 (49.2%) fall into category (a). 100% these cards were correct. These cards contained valid ballot data and the executable code on these cards was the expected code, with no extraneous data or code on the cards. We note that the adherence to the election procedures by the districts is improving, however the analysis indicates that the established procedures are not always followed; it would be helpful if reasons for these extra-procedural actions were documented and communicated to the SOTS Office in future elections.
Read the rest of this entry »
