Testing Diebold in Pocahontas: The Scanners
Today they tested our new Diebold voting machines in Pocahontas. We have eleven precincts so eleven scanners and eleven touchscreens were arrayed in the Courthouse Assembly Room at 9:00 a.m. The auditor and four of her staff were present as were two observers.
Two staff members tested the scanner for one precinct while the other two tested the scanner for a different precinct. The auditor held the direction book and read off the directions for both teams. When they finished the scanners, they tested the touchscreens. In an hour they were done with those first two precincts. Assuming they pick up speed with practice, the work should have lasted much of the day. I stayed only until 10:45.
Ten ballots were entered for each test. All ten had been prepared by the local staff. Five of the ballots were exactly like each other. I was told this was required. (!) The next five were referred to as “randomly marked with overvotes and undervotes.” These five ballots allowed every candidate to get at least one vote, I think, and each write-in line was also voted once.
After the votes were cast a totals tape was run. They were not comparing the tape to the ballots they knew they had just cast until I asked about it. When the test was finished, the machine was reset for election day and a memory card was “locked” into the machine with a plastic security tag bearing a serial number.
As the testers moved on the next set of machines, I asked about submitting my own test ballots. Auditor Margene Bunda agreed that I was permitted to do so but she had to go back upstairs to her office to get some ballots. She brought 3 ballots (two Ds and one R) for the Dover precinct which was third in the testing sequence.
I marked the ballots so as to test the calibration of the equipment, following the advice of software tester John Washburn and remembering the Arizona calibration problems reported by professor Jones. One of the D ballots and the only R ballot were marked by me with a pencil. I scribbled all over the ballot except where the voter marks are supposed to go. Those ballots should record no votes when fed into the machine.
On the other D ballot I voted in a careless manner. I voted for Culver, erased it and voted for Fallon. I made a tiny pencil mark in the oval for Dusky Terry, but also made a good dark mark for Terry’s opponent Denise O’Brien. For one write in candidate I put a tiny arrow inside the oval but did not fill the oval in completely. For other candidates I made an X or a checkmark.
Then I left!! It was 10:45 and I was due in Laurens at 11:00. So I did not get to see the results of my three test ballots. Were my votes counted? The voter intent does not matter in Iowa. The mark must be readable by the machine.
Next: Testing the paperless touchscreens.