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As a professional software developer... that is just the most sorry piece shit software I have seen in my entire life. There is absolutely no excuse for an error like that, and it is trivial to avoid something like that when designing a user interface, and messaging protocols e.g for voting. It is beyond me how something like that can be approved. Those who made that software must be totally clueless - or intentionally making the system open for manipulation. Important software like that should at least follow as rigid testing and verification procedures as military software. Following fine US litigious traditions - someone should start a class action lawsuit against the producers and the operators of that piece of garbage - for not providing proper services and including obvious failures in the system, undermining important democratic processes. That someone gets away with presenting such crock to the public is mind numbing, but perhaps worse is people not doing anything about this sorry piece of corrupt society.
I believe parts of California tried to disallow Diebold/ES&S voting machines, but then the Federal government stepped in and forced them. (But I'd have to check this, I'm going from memory here.) Diebold was doing unapproved, illegal updates to the machines to try and fix bugs (which was a crime). The emails leaked out and you can find them online. Diebold tried to sue people who posted them to take them down after admitting that they were real.
People that contract stuff to the public sector seem to always hand them a pile of shit. The IRS spent something like 10 years and 4 billion on software once that was useless. The DMV in California used to have a system that the operators could not work with... I was in line once, got some work done, got back in line, made sure I got another operator, told her that the first one seemed unsure of what she was doing, operator number two got me back hundreds of dollars... That Diebold mess was a scandal, the answer was to have a paper trail the voter could check for recounts I guess
In is local goverment, mostly at the county level that makes these decisions. These are usally part time jobs and these elected officals have little background for what is needed to put a system together like this. Also it is no accident that the vast majority of the problem areas are under the controll of the local Democratic Party. In fact they are encrusted with layer of layer of decade's control of one party rule.
Yup, or get a system like they have in Canada, where they have a piece of paper with boxes on it and they give you a pencil to mark an "X" in the box. No "X" or clear indication of the vote, no vote. Somewhat cheaper, too.
You're so brainwashed that it's hardly even worth posting facts to you. Here's where the Attorney General of California tried to decertify the machines because of Diebold's illegal activities regarding the machines: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/04/63191 Meanwhile the President of Diebold wrote in a letter that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president (Bush) next year." Here's where the whistle blower was charged with three felonies for disclosing Diebold's illegal actions: http://articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/22/local/me-diebold22 "Chief Deputy Secretary of State Cathy Mitchell briefly served as Secretary of State until Bruce McPherson, a Republican appointee of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Upon taking office, McPherson promptly reversed Shelley's actions to decertify the machines. On March 10th. 2006, McPherson, a Republican, certified the DRE voting machines without verifiable, auditable paper trails.
Some years ago I watched that documentary about the 2000 and 2004 elections - called "Hacking Democracy". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacking_Democracy - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4762159260759486531 . I was shocked back then about how US voting systems are open for manipulation, and noted how much better electronic voting systems here in Brazil are compared to the US. That this piece of shit is still malfunctioning like this - many years later - just goes to show how ridden the US election system is with fraud. It goes from the two-party system state and Gerrymandering to campaign financing and special interest lobbying. The amount of fraud and corruption in the US is appalling - from corporate, finance into politics and public society. Ethics and integrity have little place when greed rules it seems. Letting the benefiters guard the oversight is so utterly flawed, and there needs to be open audit so that corruption and fraud like this can be constantly pressured to be fixed.