2016 Postmortem

For the ES&S DS200:

*Security Seals = Ideally, the DS200’s exposed ports, memory card access areas, ballot box doors and case seams would be covered with tamper-evident security seals. The integrity of these seals should be maintained at all times, and only breached under controlled, explained circumstances. Seals should be logged to maintain chain of custody of sensitive materials.

*Ballot Box Access = Optical scan systems have at least one and possible more ballot boxes. Each ballot box should be inspected by a voter at the beginning of voting to make sure that they are empty. These ballot boxes should locked and/or be sealed with tamper-evident tape.

*The Memory Card is Sensitive = Corrupt memory cards may be able to introduce viruses, cause the main election server to crash and falsify votes. Access to the memory card should be controlled, monitored and logged at all times.

*Correct Inks = Some Optical Scan systems have trouble reading red inks or inks with red in them. Voters should use the writing instrument provided at the polling place or, if voting at home, black ballpoint pen that does not bleed through paper.

*Unresponsive Touchscreens = During EAC testing on the Unity 3.2.1.0 voting system, some DS200s stopped responding to interactions with the user interface. The anomaly presented itself at random times during the testing process. ES&S informed the EAC that the root cause of touch screen unresponsiveness is linked to an improperly implemented internal system log. This log is only accessible to ES&S technicians when troubleshooting errors with the fielded system.
. One specific event tracked by this log is the presence of the election media USB memory stick. If the unit is powered on without a memory stick inserted, the system records an event eight (8) times per second to the log. When the log reaches capacity, it causes a section of the internal compact flash (CF) card to become inaccessible. This same section of the CF card contains the calibration settings for the DS200’s touch screen interface. When this section of the CF card is inaccessible the calibration settings are no longer available to the system so the screen becomes unresponsive.

*Skewed Ballots = During testing on the Unity 3.2.1.0, a DS200 did not count a valid mark for a race. The anomaly was discovered when county testers reviewed the printed election summary report for the DS200 unit. The count for a single contest did not match the expected results. The test was performed to verify that ES&S had corrected a previous anomaly with similar symptoms. The county testers were using a 17” ballot with contests concentrated in the lower sections of the ballot.
. In discussion with the EAC, ES&S stated that they have only been able to replicate this issue in testing by removing the plastic guides and physically altering the ballot (cutting of a corner). In an effort to understand the issue the EAC focused on reviewing ballot images from several states and previous test campaigns. The review included 11”, 14”, 17” and 19” ballots. In the course of the review, the EAC found various degrees of ballot image distortion; with the 17” ballot having the largest degree of skew. The EAC is working with jurisdictions, VSTLs and the manufacturer to understand and resolve this issue.

During the EAC Certification process it was revealed that a DS200 coded for Election Day counting will not support more than 18 precincts ... .

https://www.verifiedvoting.org/resources/voting-equipment/ess/ds200/