    
Mark Michaels
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Mark_michaels
Post Number: 63
Registered: 1-2008
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 | | Posted on Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 2:33 pm: | |
Some election authorities program their own tabulators. Others hire the vendors or vendor representatives to do so.
Whoever programs and maintains the DREs and sets them up for the election is supposed to check the calibration. Screens CAN be miscalibrated intentionally, but a far more prevalent problem is screens can lose calibration over time.
IF a screen is badly miscalibrated, ALL contests will be impacted until the machine is shut down, powered up and recalibrated.
Unfortunately, the care of voting equipment is very inconsistent. During the years that I worked in the industry, I encountered many situations where election authorities barely maintained their equipment. But I also worked with others who carefully maintained their tabulators and followed all vendor recomendations. Compare it to auto maintenance... some folks treat their cars better than their spouses, while others do absolutely nothing to the car until the tank runs dry, when they add gas. Caring for election "stuff" is like that. |
