Flickr Set of Optech IIIP Eagle

One of the things I have been asking for in recent open records requests are backups of the removable memory cards used in the Town of Waukesha in the Optech IIIP Eagle infrared ballot scanner during the November 4, 2008 general election.

Backup of the contents of these removable memory packs is required by WI Stats. 7.23(1)(g) and the backups made are required to be kept by the clerk pursuant to WI Stats. 7.24.

You would think that the required to be made and required to be kept provisions of Wisconsin Election law would have made this open records request a no-brainer. In response to my August 4, 2009 open records request for the backup of four such removable scanner memory packs I received a CD-ROM with 1.5 megabytes of data.

As you can see from this flickr set of several Optech IIIPE memory packs I own, the chips of the memory pack can hold at most 48 kilobytes of data for a cumulative total of 192 kilobytes of data for the four backups requiested.

I begin to suspect the statutorily mandated backups of the November 4, 2008 general election were not made on or before February 17, 2009 as the law demands.

More on this as it develops.