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RE: Log Printer for El Paso ( your wish is my command)

I do not think they expect to see every detail transaction recorded, this is just to keep an audit trail of how did what when type of a deal. Just to make sure that no one has made any changes to corrupt the elections or ballots.

 

:-).  I guess I asked for this.
 
The original request from Rodney talked about a log of all upload activity.  GEMS has a log for this, and it would not be too big a deal to pipe the output of just the upload log or poster log to a line printer.  My original comments regarding a line printer vs printing the log to a lazer printer stand (attached), but if there is no other way to get through Texas obviously one way or another we will make them happy.
 
GEMS currently does not have a log for user activity (who did what when).  This is a different project, and is an important one.  It will need to be added to get us though other certifications, and Riverside requires it explicitly.  This is a big task, so I am not sure yet what the time frame will be.  We could at least get a framework in place and start logging the "major stuff" in fairly short order.  There is one implementation detail that needs to be worked out, but other than that it is mostly just tedious.
 
Ken
 

For the State of Texas, we need to have an on-demand-printer that is connected to the host/server computer that prints everything that comes into to the host computer.  I know that GEMS keeps an audit log.  This type of log needs to be printed out when the host computer is receiving data.  Please give me an idea when this will become available for our newest and greatest version of software.
I am told this has come up in the past with VTS (perhaps Minnesota), but we were able to convince them that an electronic log is better.  It is infinitely more likely for a line printer to fail on election night than it is for a RAID disk to fail, so this feature does not make much sense on technical merit.  Paper trails of a log file can be generated at any time based on the electronic log.  If people know of other jurisdictions other than Texas that require this, please follow up.
 
GEMS does of course log election activity on election night.  We do that through the Upload, Central Count, and Poster logs.  Review these logs and see if the information there is sufficient for Texas.  The logging for AccuVote-TS upload is currently lacking -- I will improve it to the level of AccuVote logging, so just review the that log for how it will work.  Follow up in detail with any events that need logging but we don't currently track.
 
Also forward to me whatever applicable Texas state statutes so we can review what is required by law regarding the line printer (just photocopy the sections).  I know we had some kind of certification to run elections with our software previously since we ran six precincts in Dallas last year (without the line printing feature of course).
 
This feature is not trivial to implement since we have multiple log files that operate asynchronously.  That is, GEMS performs multiple tasks simultaneously and logs the events in separate files, while presumably there would be only one log printer attached to the system.  I already have visions of a software bug where GEMS crashes when the line printer fails (ever see your home software do that?), so we would have to be very careful with any implementation.
 
Ken