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Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Doesn't anyone in this country know how to write voting machine software?
Posted by Jill | 10:32 PM
Is this supposed to be an example of good old American know-how? Are we supposed to believe that they can't make a fucking voting machine that doesn't cut off candidates' names?

U.S. Senate candidate James Webb's last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot used by voters in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, city officials said yesterday.

Although the problem creates some voter confusion, it will not cause votes to be cast incorrectly, election officials emphasized. The error shows up only on the summary page, where voters are asked to review their selections before hitting the button to cast their votes. Webb's full name appears on the page where voters choose for whom to vote.

Election officials attribute the mistake to an increase in the type size on the ballot. Although the larger type is easier to read, it also unintentionally shortens the longer names on the summary page of the ballot.

Thus, Democratic candidate Webb will appear with his first name and nickname only -- or "James H. 'Jim' " -- on summary pages in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville, the only jurisdictions in Virginia that use balloting machines manufactured by Hart InterCivic of Austin.

"We're not happy about it," Webb spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd said last night, adding that the campaign learned about the problem a week ago and has since been in touch with state election officials. "I don't think it can be remedied by Election Day. Obviously, that's a concern."

Every candidate on Alexandria's summary page has been affected in some way by the glitch. Even if candidates' full names appear, as is the case with Webb's Republican opponent, incumbent Sen. George F. Allen, their party affiliations have been cut off.

Jean Jensen, secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections, who said yesterday she only recently became aware of the problem, pledged to have it fixed by the 2007 statewide elections.

"You better believe it," Jensen said. "If I have to personally get on a plane and bring Hart InterCivic people here myself, it'll be corrected."

Absentee voters casting ballots in advance of the Nov. 7 election first noticed the problem. Election officials have been forced to post signs in voting booths and instruct poll workers to explain why some longer names appear cut-off.


There is absolutely no excuse for this. This is not a "computer glitch", it's either sloppy design or sloppy implementation.

You know, we have a guy in my department who does quality control of our software. NOTHING goes into production without being checked and validated by this guy, and he is the best damn QA guy I've ever seen. He finds just about anything you could imagine. If a field is supposed to take up to 3 initials, we have to make it wide enough so that WWW -- the widest alpha characters -- can be entered. If something is out of alignment, we fix it. If text is cut off, we make the necessary changes.

We aren't superstars. But we believe in putting out software that's as bulletproof as possible. Obviously we can't anticipate everything someone's going to do to the system, but we try as best as we can to break it BEFORE it goes out. And when a bug is found, we fix it as quickly as possible.

Do you mean to tell me that programmers at Hart InterCivic can't change a font size, or make a fucking field long enough to hold the candidate's full name? And isn't it interesting that it's Jim Webb who's being victimized here. I wonder if we can get them to show George Allen's name as "George Felix 'Macaca' Allen." Maybe then it would show up as "George Felix 'Macaca'."

Now THAT would be fitting.
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