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Voter Access Cards
Last May, Montgomery County, Maryland ran an election and experienced a
failure of 25% of their Encoders. This SHUT DOWN voting in some precincts.
Luckily, it was only a school board election at the local schools, however,
the damage was done. Montgomery County, and Maryland for that matter, no
longer have confidence in our Encoders. Montgomery County does not want to
use them at all, and use DRE's as encoders.
Bob Urosevich and I had many meetings reassuring Maryland that the Encoders
and Voter Access Cards are OK. We even went to the expense of replacing ALL
Encoders and VAC cards in Maryland to reassure them that we would send new,
thoroughly tested product to them. We told them that the Encoders and Voter
Access Cards would be tested thoroughly by the manufacturer, and a second
time by Diebold staff before shipping to them.
So . . . this week I have to go to them and explain that an upgrade to the
Encoder is necessary 2 weeks before their election.
Also . . . I understand that we still may have some bad Voter Access Cards
popping up. Maryland has already packed their Voter Access Cards into
supply bags, and "activating" each one at this point is not possible. (Had
someone told me 2 weeks ago that the Voter Access Cards needed to be
activated, I could have arranged to do so. . .)
The purpose of writing this history is to make sure that everyone
understands how important this is. We may never see the potential $38
million in additional sales in Maryland if there are problems with on
election day. And I can assure you - Maryland will share their experience.
I am requesting that someone produce a flyer that I can distribute with the
Encoders and VAC cards for election day. It should cover all potential
problems that they may see with either the Encoder or the VAC, and what to
do. If we can't eliminate the problems, we must make sure they are prepared
to deal with them.
For instance - checking to make sure the 1.1.4 upgrade is on the Encoder
The "04" error - if the upgrade is missed
Setting aside the VAC if it shows "Bad Card"
Calling a technician if "Insert Super Card" displays - because it is not
programmed
Anything else they might see????
Can Nel be assigned to produce this flyer? Can Ken give him the information
to write it? The more graphics we include, the better. Can I have it ASAP,
so I can get it distributed to 4 Counties and placed in their supply bags
before they are distributed?
Sue
Sue Page
Maryland Project Manager
Diebold Election Systems, Inc.
suep@dieboldes.com
410-286-2834
cell 443-404-9621
https://www.mdvotes.org/