EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Susan Pynchon
Organization : | Florida Fair Elections Coalition
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Glossary Comments
Glossary Term : | Catastrophic Failure
Definition : |
Comment : | While there is a definition of "Catastrophic Failure" in the Glossary, there are no VSS as to how to deal with catastrophic failures in DREs. If there is a catastrophic failure in an op-scan, there are paper ballots to recount and thus recapture lost votes. However, if a DRE experiences "catastrophic failure," which may occur due to programming errors, machine breakdown, operator error, electrical interference, or other non-recoverable events, all votes are lost. Avoding this issue does not solve it. Only eliminating DREs will solve this problem. Our democracy is too important to risk being sacrificed to "catastrophic failure," when we already have op-scan systems available that will allow us to hand count paper ballots to recapture lost votes. DREs will one day be seen as the "Edsel" of voting technology.