Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »November 04, 2008 — IDG News Service —
No one's doubting the outcome of the massive turnout in the U.S. presidential election in Democratic New Jersey, but for some voters and elected officials, e-voting glitches and long lines are undermining confidence in the electoral process.
"Our voting machine is down. It's broken and they don't appear to have a backup machine," said Bill Grafton, an IT professional who was frustrated in his attempt to vote early Tuesday morning on a Sequoia AVC Advantage machine in Maplewood, a leafy suburb 30 minutes from New York City.
Poll workers for the district said they had only 16 emergency ballots and had to turn away voters when they ran out. More ballots were brought, and when the poll workers ran out of those, they ran down the corridor to use an elementary school photocopier to make more ballots.
"I don't have much faith in these machines," said one poll worker.
People are concerned that in all the confusion, ballots will not be tallied correctly.
"There's a huge feeling that our ballots will not be counted," Grafton said. A few dropped votes in a state expected to go for Barack Obama will not make a difference in the presidential election. But it might make a difference to the town's vote on a referendum Grafton is backing, on a project to lay down artificial turf in a local park.
A New Jersey class-action lawsuit involving voting machines was filed in 2004 and charges that direct-recording electronic devices (DREs) with no paper audit possibilities are illegal. The suit cites state law concerning accurate vote counting, but was not resolved before the November elections.
"If there's a problem, there's no paper trail to actually show how people may have voted, unlike the old machines," said David Lyons, a town councilman standing outside a polling station in Irvington, a working-class town bordering Newark. "I've had conversations with people who have told me they were concerned about it. They're concerned that people might be able to hack into them."
Despite such issues, there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air.
"I've never seen this kind of crowd, it's exciting to see," said Grafton. "It's gonna be a pretty electric day for everyone in the country."
But lines hundreds of people long put a damper on things for some voters.
"I was in line two hours," said Sylvia Green-Robinson, a retired nurse in Irvington. "This morning everyone came out, the sick, the lame and the lazy!" Still, she would have spent a little extra time to make sure there was a paper trail for her vote. "It's two minutes to do the electronic, so if you have to do the paper I would do it too, to make sure the vote counts."