I can confirm that at least one person from KPMG was present at Olympia. He had a badge saying KPMG and confirmed that he was indeed from KPMG. I saw him numerous times throughout the whole day carrying his clipboard. He obviously wouldn't answer any questions about what he was doing or whether he was present for the audit or the stack of spare scanners. Stupidly, I didn't take his name.
posted by Alex Robinson on 3 May 2008, 13:01
I asked several Indra people, and they all confirmed that there were no auditors from KPMG in the count centre. So whatever these Indra people were doing was not subject to oversight from KPMG.
posted by Alex Tingle on 3 May 2008, 10:37
Regardless of their instructions, they often seemed happy to talk, as long as they weren't busy.
posted by Alex Tingle on 3 May 2008, 10:35
It wasn't clear to me who was a DCRO. The id badges (at least in Merton & Wandsworth) didn't seem to make the distinction. The CRO's badge definitely did NOT identify him as such - it just said "Chief Executive".
posted by Alex Tingle on 3 May 2008, 10:32
Mainly involved feeding through of cleaning paper.
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:31
This is a good view of how each of the 6 constituencies being counted at Olympia were laid out. Scanning on left, first stage adjudication at front, verification or registration at front right, scanning at right and CRO adjudication at back (with large screen).
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:30
In this photo there are a number of counting agents. For much of the day first level adjudication went on without any attention from the parties.
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:28
First level adjudication was done by more junior count staff - only second stage adjudication was done by DCROs (and in practice, more junior support staff)
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:27
Staff were instructed not to talk to observers. We had no way to know what they were doing, whether they were reprogramming the equipment or updating the database(s) on the fly - which problems later in the day suggested might be occurring. Also unclear whether their laptops, the servers, and the counting equipment around Olympia were all networked together, to City Hall, and/or to the wider Internet.
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:25
Counting agents and observers were shown these pieces of paper to assure them the machines had been zero - no other way possible of observing the accuracy of this.
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:23
Contentious ballots were projected on screen and a decision made by the CRO and their staff after input from the political party representatives usually watching.
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:20
Ballots were input in the bottom half and output into the hopper visible here. They quite often curled up as the output pile grew and had to be quickly snatched out by the operators.
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:18
The polling station counts were later checked against the number of ballot papers scanned. A verification process was used to resolve difficulties - with rescans if the differences were greater than a small number.
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:17
The barcode reader was used to scan the barcode on each new ballot box as it was opened for counting. The barcodes on the back of the ballot papers were scanned by the scanning machine at the same time as the front of the papers.
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:16
From the increasingly frequent rebooting of the scanner stations later in the day, the PCs looked to be booting Windows XP from a local disk, then running the count software from a shared network drive.
posted by Ian Brown on 3 May 2008, 10:15
really liking this... very nice
posted by Jeranon on 11 Apr 2008, 19:31
Actually, this family is just named 'Deas' and therefore probably not related to you.
posted by hilde on 1 Mar 2008, 19:36
This is Good
posted by Neo on 5 Jan 2008, 08:25
what part of the deases family are you related to? please reply as we are planning a family reunion. thanks, Esther
posted by Esther DeAses-Dallas,TX on 3 Jan 2008, 06:39
Just checking out easy ajax progress... nice work alex!
posted by Dr Jack on 29 Dec 2007, 13:07
Your baby is beautiful and are we related to you? My sister Esther DeAses seems to think so..Please reply by email to beatricedeases@sbcglobal.net
posted by Beatrice Deases on 5 Dec 2007, 01:40
Nice
posted by Dave on 1 Dec 2007, 17:35
What a nice portrait! Well done.
posted by Ildefonso Zanette on 24 Nov 2007, 19:57
cool
posted by ben on 22 Nov 2007, 03:13
i want to visit the falls
posted by jasmine p on 19 Nov 2007, 15:23
it is cool looking from the pics.
posted by harp on 19 Nov 2007, 15:21
prova
posted by prova on 12 Oct 2007, 01:59
EEeewww!
posted by Joe on 4 Oct 2007, 18:25
wonderfull!! site
posted by coyote on 28 Sep 2007, 06:46
Looks nice. I'm impressed that you've named all your pictures. "Beer 1" and "Beer 2" are particularly evocative.
posted by Nigel on 19 Sep 2007, 22:18
Hope you know how rare it is to capture Bodger on film! Well done Alex,you can't see how skinny he really is either !!
posted by Sue Bodger on 9 Sep 2007, 12:26
You can just see Michelle asleep in the background.
posted by Alex on 7 Sep 2007, 10:00
You see what happens when you work with vegetables too often........?..?? A dodgy dress and a nasty looking curtsey........!!! Ah, happy days XXX
posted by Acorn (Jane) on 7 Sep 2007, 09:21
nice
posted by hosmY on 6 Sep 2007, 23:09
Alex.. simply stunning, thanks honey.... give your wife a tickle for me xxx
posted by Afric on 6 Sep 2007, 22:15
how beautiful ! thankyou thankyou xxx
posted by trudy on 5 Sep 2007, 07:10
I'll put them here if you like. As you wish.
posted by Alex on 4 Sep 2007, 21:49
I have a couple of the completed wicker man. I must upload them sometime - do you want 'em or should I shove them on the OBOD site?
posted by Cilla on 4 Sep 2007, 20:39
Great one of you, too, Hilde!
posted by Cilla on 4 Sep 2007, 20:38
This is a really great photo of Robbin - I hope she looks at them soon!
posted by Cilla on 4 Sep 2007, 20:37
Oh, it wasn't anything too bad or I wouldn't look so relaxed. I agree it's a lovely photo, thanks Alex!!
posted by Cilla on 4 Sep 2007, 20:35
gg :D
posted by gg on 4 Sep 2007, 18:27
Keith's brother. Can't remember his name either.
posted by Steve on 4 Sep 2007, 13:32
As above so below.
posted by Stev on 4 Sep 2007, 13:29
Yes, Hilde.. although you can't hear what she's saying of course...
posted by Steve on 4 Sep 2007, 13:28
No small animals were hurt in the making of this picture :)
posted by Hilde on 3 Sep 2007, 21:53
I always look old on camp...
posted by Hilde on 3 Sep 2007, 21:44
Tracy, I think you should have that tattooed. I love how the awen looks like standing stones reflected in a lake.
posted by Hilde on 3 Sep 2007, 21:41
We hadn't seen so much blue sky in weeks, if not months!
posted by Hilde on 3 Sep 2007, 21:35
One of the best looking males on camp. Not to mention the human...
posted by Hilde on 3 Sep 2007, 21:33