http://news.tbo.com/news/MGB83JDJHVD.html
Jun
15, 2004
Voting Machines In 11 Counties Have Audit Flaw
The
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE
- Touch-screen voting machines in 11 counties have a software flaw that could
make manual recounts impossible in November's presidential election. The
machines, made by Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb., fail to
provide a consistent electronic ``event log'' of the voting activity when asked
to reproduce what happened during the election, state officials said.
The
counties using the machines are Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Lake, Lee, Martin,
Miami-Dade, Nassau, Pasco, Sarasota and Sumter.
The
state Division of Elections and ES&S say they have found a remedy for the
problem. It involves linking the voting equipment with laptop computers to
extract the information.
With
the solution coming five months before the election - and with the state having
certified voting equipment that fails to perform as federal law requires - some
people are questioning the paperless system.
U.S.
Rep. Robert Wexler, D- Boca Raton, has asked state Attorney General Charlie Crist to investigate whether the
head of the state elections division lied under oath when he denied knowing of
the computer problem before seeing media reports.
Ed
Kast, the elections chief, abruptly resigned June 7,
saying he wanted a change of pace.
Secretary
of State Glenda Hood sent a stinging letter to Miami-Dade Supervisor of
Elections Constance Kaplan on May 13, condemning her for not notifying state
officials when Kaplan learned of the problem in June 2003.
"If
Miami-Dade has known about this issue since June 2003 and we had been properly
informed of this, this anomaly would be resolved,'' said Nicole DeLara, a spokeswoman for Hood.
Nonetheless,
state and county election officials insist the problem can be resolved before
November's election.
Wexler
and advocates for the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition want to know how the
state can be sure that glitches will not prevent elections officials from
detecting computer malfunctions.
"They
clearly are trying to cover up the fact that they certified election machines
that do not comply with Florida law,'' Wexler said.
The
federal Help America Vote Act, drawn up in response to the bitterly contested
presidential election of 2000, requires that every voting system be able to
produce a permanent paper record with a manual audit capacity.
This
story can be found at: http://news.tbo.com/news/MGB83JDJHVD.html
TBO.com Is Tampa Bay Online
©2004, Media General Inc. All rights reserved
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains
copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically
authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our
efforts to advance understanding of political, democracy, scientific, and
social justice issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In
accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use
copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond
'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.