US Election Assistance Commission - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines Vote
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Name :   Stanley A. Klein
Organization :   N/A
Post Date :   9/30/2005

Section Comments
Section :  3.4.5
Page no. :  
Line no.:  
Comment :  MEANINGLESS REQUIREMENTS AND OTHER VVSG DEFICIENCIES
There are numerous unenforced or otherwise meaningless requirements in the VVSG. Some of them include:

Availability requirement (Volume I, Section 3.4.5). The requirement for 99%
availability would be an improvement over the reliability requirement if it were based on a
valid model of voting machine operation. However, the operational model is invalid and
as a result the requirement is meaningless. The assumption made in the requirement is that
voting machines can reasonably be taken apart and repaired on election day. In an election
in Fairfax County, Virginia, a few years ago, there was a scandal with serious suspicions of
tampering by voting machine technicians when just such repairs were attempted. The time
to repair must include time for diagnosis and trouble ticket issuance by polling place
personnel, time for dispatch and travel by repair technicians, time for diagnosis by repair
technicians, logistics time for obtaining spare parts, time for installing spare parts and
testing of the repair, and time for restoration of the machine to voting service. Because of
the issues raised by this model, very often a failed voting machine is simply taken out of
service for the remainder of the election. The model expressed in this section is seriously
flawed, making the provision meaningless.