Diebold, the primary (only?) election machine manufacturer in the country, (now called Premier Election Solutions), is being sued by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brenner for breach of contract and fraud. The suit blames faulty software for losing votes in 11 of the 44 counties that use Premier machines. Ironically, Diebold’s national hq is located in Ohio. (read story on Ars Technica)

It’s not the first time that states have encountered troubling flaws with the new electronic voting machine system. Here are stories compiled over the past few years from PBS about some of them.

Have the problems of 2006 been ironed out?

Since the Help America Vote Act was passed in 2002, the new voting machines have cropped up all over the country–as have attendant problems:

Now on PBS:
Aired a report in late 2006 about the problems with voting machines of the past few years across the U.S. Watch this report online.

NewsHour:
2003 problems
2006 roundup report
2006 post-election fears
2008 security problems in California

Tavis Smiley
interview with Lawrence Norden, voting machine technology/law expert and author of Machinery of Democracy (full report available online).

Elsewhere on the web:
See all posts on voting machine politics from a voting rights watchdog blog.