News & Politics - Electronic Voting Machine Glitches (2006)

ceilirose · 10-30-2006, 08:25 AM

Well it's starting early this time. A problem that started six years ago still hasn't been resolved.

Quote:

Glitches cited in early votingEarly voters are urged to cast their ballots with care following scattered reports of problems with heavily used machines.

BY CHARLES RABIN AND DARRAN SIMON
dsimon@MiamiHerald.com

After a week of early voting, a handful of glitches with electronic voting machines have drawn the ire of voters, reassurances from elections supervisors -- and a caution against the careless casting of ballots.

Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen -- the final voting step.

Election officials say they aren't aware of any serious voting issues. But in Broward County, for example, they don't know how widespread the machine problems are because there's no process for poll workers to quickly report minor issues and no central database of machine problems.

In Miami-Dade, incidents are logged and reported daily and recorded in a central database. Problem machines are shut down.

''In the past, Miami-Dade County would send someone to correct the machine on site,'' said Lester Sola, county supervisor of elections. Now, he said, ``We close the machine down and put a seal on it.''

Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist.

That's exactly the kind of problem that sends conspiracy theorists into high gear -- especially in South Florida, where a history of problems at the polls have made voters particularly skittish.

A poll worker then helped Rudolf, but it took three tries to get it right, Reed said.

''I'm shocked because I really want . . . to trust that the issues with irregularities with voting machines have been resolved,'' said Reed, a paralegal. ``It worries me because the races are so close.''

Broward Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Mary Cooney said it's not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly. Poll workers are trained to recalibrate them on the spot -- essentially, to realign the video screen with the electronics inside. The 15-step process is outlined in the poll-workers manual.

''It is resolved right there at the early-voting site,'' Cooney said.

Broward poll workers keep a log of all maintenance done on machines at each site. But the Supervisor of Elections office doesn't see that log until the early voting period ends. And a machine isn't taken out of service unless the poll clerk decides it's a chronic poor performer that can't be fixed.

Cooney said no machines have been removed during early voting, and she is not aware of any serious problems.

In Miami-Dade, two machines have been taken out of service during early voting. No votes were lost, Sola said.

Joan Marek, 60, a Democrat from Hollywood, was also stunned to see Charlie Crist on her ballot review page after voting on Thursday. ''Am I on the voting screen again?'' she wondered. ``Well, this is too weird.''

Marek corrected her ballot and alerted poll workers at the Hollywood satellite courthouse, who she said told her they'd had previous problems with the same machine.

Poll workers did some work on her machine when she finished voting, Marek said. But no report was made to the Supervisor of Elections office and the machine was not removed, Cooney said.

Workers at the Hollywood poll said there had been no voting problems on Friday.

Mauricio Raponi wanted to vote for Democrats across the board at the Lemon City Library in Miami on Thursday. But each time he hit the button next to the candidate, the Republican choice showed up. Raponi, 53, persevered until the machine worked. Then he alerted a poll worker.

Miami Herald staff writer Linda Topping Streitfeld contributed to this report.

This has been a continuing problem over the last few elections. I just don't understand why in the oldest democracy in the world this should even be an issue.

This should be a bi-partisan issue. Every American should be concerned about the integrity of the voting process.

Lexis · 10-30-2006, 09:31 AM

This is not good at all.

Our system is quite low tech (tick a box on a piece of paper and then put it in a ballot box) and it clearly takes more time to deal with (counting). There should be a way to make it electronic without all these odd occurances.

Do these machines keep any kind of hard copy record?

ceilirose · 10-30-2006, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lexis (View Post)

This is not good at all.

Our system is quite low tech (tick a box on a piece of paper and then put it in a ballot box) and it clearly takes more time to deal with (counting). There should be a way to make it electronic without all these odd occurances.

Do these machines keep any kind of hard copy record?

You know I don't think there is. At least in 2004 that was an issue. Something about the technology not being there although you can take money out of your ATM literally anywhere in the world, get a receipt and have it on your next bank statement. You get a receipt for your groceries which can be quite detailed. It's probably not quite the same but I don't see how and why it can't be resolved.

The companies that make these voting machines should at least want the public to have some degree of confidence in them. Right now that's not the case.

Where I vote we use a scanning system. Fill in the hole next to the candidate and then you put your ballot into a scannng machine. It seems to work ok and at least there's a hard copy of your actual ballot out there.

S.A.S.H.A. · 10-30-2006, 05:32 PM

Ah, reminds me of Man of the Year. As long as I've been able to vote, I've always done so using electronic voting machines.

Sasha

ceilirose · 10-30-2006, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by S.A.S.H.A. (View Post)

Ah, reminds me of Man of the Year. As long as I've been able to vote, I've always done so using electronic voting machines.

Sasha

But S.A.S.H.A. - you vote Republican (don't you?) so it gets counted

Just kidding..

S.A.S.H.A. · 10-30-2006, 06:31 PM

As long as my candidates win.

Sasha

goodnightboy · 10-31-2006, 04:40 AM

You'd think that in a country where the presidential race is so highly contested and the atmosphere so highly charged, there'd be more effort to get the machine to work, so that election results aren't afftected by wrong votes.

I'm not old enough to vote (plus it's always a walkover where I come from) so I don't know how our system is, but I haven't heard any complaints about it so far. I think ours is like Lexis', where it's low-tech paper and pencil. Sometimes you can't beat that, eh!


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