E-Voting machine crashes

Found on The Inquirer on Wednesday, 13 October 2004
Browse Politics

Those who think that e-voting in the US is just asking for trouble have had their case strengthened, when a test run of the system crashed in Florida.

Apparently the system was due to be tested on Tuesday but the test had to be delayed because excessive heat caused a computer server that tabulates data from the touch-screen machines to crash.

Officials were quick to blame Hurricane Jeanne, which struck in September. They think that a stray bolt of lightning may have zapped electricity and air conditioning to the room where the server was stored, causing temperatures to soar to 90 degrees or more.

So no-one noticed that the server room had warmed noticeably in the last month since the storm and the servers only chose the day of the voting test to crash. Sounds a little odd, but in a State were Robert Mugabe jokingly offered to send troops to help restore democracy anything is possible.

A paper, a pencil and a bunch of people who can count. That works fine in so many other countries, so it should too in the US. But then, it is easier to fake votes electronically than change hundreds of paper votes.