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RE: Creating Challenge Voter Cards - able to use duplicate ID numbers - AVTS - CE - 4.0.6



From: owner-bugtrack@dieboldes.com [mailto:owner-bugtrack@dieboldes.com]On Behalf Of Larry Dix
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2001 6:46 AM

There must be some indication that the challenge ID number has already been used.   

 

For some value of "must". 

Is there any check of the ID for duplicate entries? 

 

No, nor has there ever been.  The crux of the problem is that there is no guarantee that there is not more than one poll book in the vote center.  Say you have two Spyrus units, or two Jornadas, or a combination thereof -- how does one unit tell the other that an ID is used?  Network them? 

 

This might sound like an academic argument, but consider that paper poll books are almost always split into different stations (often by voter's last name).  Everyone seems to ohh-and-ahh at electronic poll books while ignoring this fact.

 

Bottom line, how are duplicate IDs getting into the system in the first place?  The poll worker mis-types them?  That's a specious argument don't you think?  They can mistype the id and have it not be duplicate, and you'll still won't be able to identify the voter come accept time.

 

If its a show-stopper for Brit, we might look into checking for dups on the ballot station.  It won't ever work for the Spyrus as there is no place to store what has already been used.  It would just be yet another hack for certification though -- it doesn't address the problem.

 

Ken