UConn Report Shows Junk Memory Cards Direct From Vendor
Posted on October 11, UConn has a new report dated October 7th of the Pre-Election testing of memory cards for the
August 2008 Primary, Pre-Election Audit of Memory Cards for the August 2008 Connecticut Primary Elections
By Luther Weeks, www.ctvoterscount.org
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There was a different methodology used to gather cards for this report. Previous reports were of an incomplete selection
of memory cards shipped to UConn by registrars — which should have been subject to pre-election testing before selection
and shipping to UConn. Those reports demonstrated that many election officials failed to properly follow pre-election
testing procedures. In addition there were questions about “junk” data cards that could not be read. This latest report
avoids the embarrassing level of failure to follow procedures, while getting closer to the source of the “Junk” memory
card problem — cards were shipped to UConn directly from the vendor, LHS:
Larger than acceptable number of cards contained what we describe as “junk” data. By saying that we understand that the
card does not contain proper programming, and instead contains what appears to be random noise. When one puts the card
containing the “junk” data into the AV-OS terminal it issues a prompt requesting to format the card. Thus such cards are
easily detectable and cannot possibly be used in an election. It seems unlikely that these cards were
(electromagnetically) damaged in shipping. Consequently, it appears that these cards were either not adequately tested
by LHS Associates, or they experienced some kind of hardware/software failure at some point. Among the audited cards
5.4% of the cards contained junk data. This percentage is high and this issue has to be resolved in the future.…
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