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1.94W firmware dropping ballots



 
----- Original Message -----
To: Support
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 1999 8:02 PM
Subject: Experience in South Carolina

R. Pickett experienced a problem in a South Carolina precinct on a Tuesday morning election (May 4, 1999).  It consisted of ballot being dropped from an Accu-Vote loaded with 1.94w (the latest firmware level).  We have tried to reproduce it here at McKinney with our own unit and ballots, but have been successful.  R. Pickett will be sending that unit, some sample ballots, and a memory card to McKinney so we can try to reproduce the problem with that particular Accu-Vote unit.
 
 
I was able to duplicate the experience of Mr. Pickett.
 
Insert a slip of paper into the reader enough to cover at least one channel.
Remove paper then insert a ballot within four seconds.
The ballot will be allowed to go into the ballot box with "Ballot not read, please re-insert" message.  Of course the ballot count was not updated.
This will occur no matter what ballot is fed through whether programmed for the election or not.
 
Doing the same test using 1.94f! firmware results in the ballot being rejected after the ballot had traveled less than two inches into the throat.  This is acceptable and preferred behavior.
 
The real question now is why the two versions of firmware are behaving differently?  I had done my earlier tests under the assumption the versions were equivalent in operation.  The only difference was the release name displayed on the LCD. 
My tests utilized the 1.94f! firmware and I did not find any obvious bugs.  Unfortunately I did not repeat the tests with the 1.94W firmware. 
 
The checksums have been verified against the release notes.
 
What tests were done by others using 1.94W firmware under the same assumptions?  Are these areas in the 1.94f! firmware now untested?
 
Some thoughts:
We have shipped a slew of new machines with the 1.94W firmware. 
We are due to test at Wyle Labs with 1.94W firmware. 
 
Steve R.