lightningbug

This would also explain the failure of the "Orca" system. The descriptions I've seen say that Orca was a "scratch list" system, keeping track of exactly who has voted. That way, you can call the non-voters and see if they need a ride to the polls or whatever. That would be dead simple to design and build -- I could do it by myself in a couple of weeks. Add another week for some heavy-duty testing and a few days for a graphic artist to make it look pretty, and Bob's your uncle. So what did they spend the money on? Some high-priced "consultants"? Of course; the big-name consultants can spend any amount of money for a non-working system. And why were they so upset about it? Scratch lists are a trivial ingredient of GOTV anyway. (At least they were when I was working the phones. Maybe I'm just not very good at it. :-)

Remember, according to the exit polls (which are what we use in third-world elections to make sure the election is honest), Kerry won Ohio and Florida in 2004.  And their voting machines had a "midnight update", too.  Also, Ohio (against a direct Federal order) zeroed out the actual voting machines as soon as Bush's win in the state was "verified".