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One of the first principles of managing an elections system, manual or automated, is that there is never just one copy of the vote totals. Multiple copies of the vote totals from each machine are maintained by different governmental entities at different locations. Totals are certified by a Board of Elections Commissioners at the local level before they become final in the Secretary of State's computer system. It would require collusion on a massive scale to alter the totals.

Booth Martin wrote:
Wayne, thank you. This sounds like you guys in Louisiana are taking vote counts seriously?

I am curious: who audits the AS/400's security and software? What assurances do you, yourself, have that one of the staff is not installing vote-enhancing procedures to the system?

I am not suggesting or questioning the integrity of the system, I am just curious from a technical point of view.


Wayne McAlpine wrote:

The major players in the voting machine market are ES&S, Diebold, and Sequoia. All of them are basically trying to market a turnkey solution for smaller jurisdictions like counties. The software includes modules for candidate qualifying, ballot assembly, and vote tabulation. All of these functions are running on the AS/400, not the vendor's package. Sequoia worked with us originally to develop an interface to the AS/400 that would allow the direct upload of vote totals, which was all that we required of the machines. Other vendors were less successful at integrating with our existing custom software.

It's been a few years since I participated in a full-scale evaluation of voting machines, but the Diebold system, as I recall, is based on Windows CE software. ES&S and Sequoia use a proprietary package. We have had both the Sequoia and the ES&S systems in production. Sequoia just won a competitive bid to supply all of the state's voting machines. There is a tremendous amount of money available right now for the upgrade of election systems nationwide under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) that was passed in response to the 2000 debacle in Florida.

A full face machine is one that allows you to see the entire ballot without having to scroll up and down. Generally, these are simpler for the voter to use and allow for faster voting, particularly on long and complicated ballots. The Sequoia machine uses membrane swithes in a matrix that are overlaid with a printed ballot, not a touch screen. There is a pre-programmed cartridge for each machine that is removed at the close of the polls. It contains the vote totals and these are uploaded to the AS/400 for tabulation.

Incidentally, we also use the AS/400 to serve up election results on the internet. Our Model 740 is capable of handling the concentrated volume of web hits that we receive on election night, numbering over a million in a four-hour window. Here's a link to the upcoming municipal elections in New Orleans if you want to take a look. Twenty-three (!) people are running in the open primary to replace incumbent mayor Ray Nagin.

http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcinq&rqsdta=start






Booth Martin wrote:

Would you be willing to talk a bit more about this? How do you believe it compares with the Diebold solution? Until right now I had believed the only computer solution out there was the new Diebold system that has been in the news so much?

Wayne McAlpine wrote:


We have been using the AS/400 since 1992 as the backbone of Louisiana's election system. All of the code was written in-house and interfaces seamlessly with the Sequoia system. Sequoia uses a full-face voting machine, not a touch screen like most of the others.





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