Update on this
problem and tentative explanation.
With
Jeff Hintz help, we have
determined that this problem was due to the following;
On Gems a font
was selected as Arial Narrow 11. When downloading to a NT version VTS
all of the fonts represented on the screen were the same. But when down
loading to a WIN 98 VTS (that is what El
Paso has) in some of the
races the Font was different from each other even though it was the same
database. Our assumption is that WIN98 AVTS did not have the font
available within its library and it just took a font it felt the most
correct. If all were the same then it would not have been a problem, but
since font selected was arbitrary that is why we had
complains.
Will we see this
again with the R6 units? (CE vs. NT) Should the program warn you on
start up that the font required are not available?
The best fix for
El
Paso is to replace old R4
units with new R6. That is what will happen before their next election
in November 2002. They have 135 R4 AVTS with WIN 98. They just
received 100 R6 to replace old units but we still need 35 more R6’s to
complete the change over.
Thanks
Jeff.
-----Original
Message-----
From:
owner-bugtrack@gesn.com [mailto:owner-bugtrack@gesn.com]
Sent: Friday, April 12,
2002 3:16
PM
To: Bugtrack@Gesn.
Com
Cc: Barry
Herron;
Barry
Herron
Subject: El
Paso Run-Off Election Font
Problem
We have had a complaint in
El Paso,
Texas. It
is alleged that during the past runoff election on one particular race that
the font for one candidate was some how presented in a different font or type
face than the competing candidate. Since this candidate lost, she claims
unfair advantage to the winner since it is alleged that his font was larger
than hers, thus, enticing the voter to chose her opponent instead of
her.
I have discussed this with
Rodney
Turner since he
was the Global Support Representative for this account at the time; and he has
looked in GEMS and assures me that Arial Thin 11 was used for both candidate
names.
Question # 1; is it possible that
during the download to the R4 units that this font may have been changed by
the Ballot Station software when it was rendering the GEMS originate font or
type face?
Question # 2; is there a way to
make sure that what was sent as a font type was indeed what was rendered on
the Ballot Station with out just by eyeball alone. Since this is what
has created the dilemma in the first place by someone who has made the
assumption that it is different just because that is what they perceived by
looking on the screen, I would like to be in our explanation to
El Paso, a bit
more scientific about this. Specially that we are waiting for them to
sign a county wide order for three (3) million dollars soon, (I
hope).
If this goes to court we may have
to prove that it is the same. I will arrive on site on Monday the
15th and I will get a copy of the GEMS data base and a copy of a
ballot station disc files to send as a follow-up to this bug
track.
We need to defuse this ASAP.
Please respond, thanks.
Juan A. Rivera
Diebold Election
Systems
(214) 335-3478
jrglobal@earthlink.net