Broward considers dumping $17 million in touch voting machines

Sun-Sentinel ^ | 09/24/03 | Scott Wyman

[bedolido]

Less than two years after spending $17 million to replace Broward County's election system, county commissioners expressed growing apprehension Tuesday about electronic voting and decided to rethink what they had done.

Commissioners ordered their staff to explore retrofitting the new touch-screen voting machines to print copies of each ballot or ditching the machinery in favor of paper ballots read by optical scanners. They want the study completed in the next couple of months so they can make any changes before next year's presidential elections. The ATM-style touch screens replaced the punch-card ballots that were banned in Florida after the 2000 presidential election recount. But critics complain electronic voting could be prone to tampering and also is impossible to recount during a disputed election.

"There is no confidence in the equipment and no confidence that it will work properly," Commissioner John Rodstrom said. "We were rushed into making a decision, and now we need to figure out a better way because there is no way to go back and recount. We need to have integrity in our voting system."

[oncebitten]

Can you say "morons"? I knew you could. Bwahahahahahahahaha!

[bmwcyle]

How much does a touch screen PC cost?

[NautiNurse]

The ATM-style touch screens replaced the punch-card ballots that were banned in Florida after the 2000 presidential election recount. But critics complain electronic voting could be prone to tampering and also is impossible to recount during a disputed election.

"There is no confidence in the equipment and no confidence that it will work properly," Commissioner John Rodstrom said. "We were rushed into making a decision, and now we need to figure out a better way because there is no way to go back and recount. We need to have integrity in our voting system."

Broward County's actions come on the heels of a similar decision in Miami-Dade County earlier this month. Miami-Dade officials decided against immediately installing printers on their 7,200 voting machines but to undertake a four-month study.

Computerized balloting was touted as the wave of the future but has faced increasing attack from scientists and computer experts.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have warned that the machinery could be rigged to miscount votes. Other scientists have recommended using the technology only if there is a paper trail that could be audited after elections if necessary.

Executives at Election Systems & Software, which manufactured Broward and Miami-Dade's voting machines, welcomed the studies. They told commissioners they were ready to show how their machinery can withstand tampering and does not have the problems cited in the national reports. Yet they added that no system is foolproof.

"It's not just the machine that builds security," said John Groh, senior vice president at ES&S. "It's an entire process. It's who is allowed to stand at the machine. It's how the machines are unloaded and secured at the polling places. It's a whole group of procedures that must be followed to ensure security."

Broward purchased 5,000 machines from ES&S as part of the $17.2 million deal in December 2001.

Commissioners initially wanted to buy a cheaper optical-scan election system in which voters fill in ovals on a ballot next to their favored candidates and then machines read the paper forms to count the votes. But Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant rallied residents behind electronic voting as more efficient and accurate and persuaded the board to reverse course.

Oliphant said she still supports technology and said the commissioners are to blame for any problems because they did not buy the type of touch screens she wanted. "The Broward County commissioners overruled my recommendation and that of experienced supervisors around the country," she said.

Commissioners complain now that they were under pressure in late 2001 to make a quick decision because the state Legislature had banned punch cards and they needed a new system for the 2002 elections.

The touch-screen machinery accounted for part of the problems in the 2002 elections in Broward.

During the September primary, election workers found more than 1,000 votes that had not been reported in initial tallies to the state because machines had not been shut down properly. And then in the November election, officials botched the numbers by not including in the tallies ballots cast by English-speaking early voters.

"Hindsight is 20/20, but I wish we had stayed with optical scan," Commissioner Kristin Jacobs said.

Florida election officials have not certified the use of printers with the touch-screen machinery, so county commissioners plan to lobby the Legislature to allow it. County administrators estimate it would cost $1,000 per machine to retrofit the machines to either provide a receipt to the voter or make a printout that is kept in a sealed container.

But ES&S officials said they are uncertain what the cost would be. Groh said the price would depend on technical requirements.

Commissioner Ilene Lieberman initially proposed investigating whether to retrofit the machines with printers, but other commissioners expanded her plan to investigate any options that would allow paper recounts. They told county staff to include looking at whether they should sell or dispose of the touch screens and buy optical scan equipment.

"We owe voters no less than a full review because the right to vote is our most precious right in the country," Lieberman said.

Political writer Buddy Nevins contributed to this report.

[gitmo]

Voting security is a hugh issue, whether its computerized voting, punch cards, or paper ballots. If all parties involved don't monitor the process from beginning to end, fraud is simple and virtually untraceable.

That was one of the hot issues in the Fla "recount". The demonRats ran off with the ballot boxes into a locked room. At that point, there should not be any recounting allowed. The integrity of those ballots has been compromised and they are not reliable for counting purposes.

[jokar]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-celect24sep24,0,1706541.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

There is no confidence in the equipment and no confidence that it will work properly," Commissioner John Rodstrom said. "We were rushed into making a decision, and now we need to figure out a better way because there is no way to go back and recount. We need to have integrity in our voting system."

Broward County's actions come on the heels of a similar decision in Miami-Dade County earlier this month. Miami-Dade officials decided against immediately installing printers on their 7,200 voting machines but to undertake a four-month study.

Computerized balloting was touted as the wave of the future but has faced increasing attack from scientists and computer experts.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have warned that the machinery could be rigged to miscount votes. Other scientists have recommended using the technology only if there is a paper trail that could be audited after elections if necessary.

Executives at Election Systems & Software, which manufactured Broward and Miami-Dade's voting machines, welcomed the studies. They told commissioners they were ready to show how their machinery can withstand tampering and does not have the problems cited in the national reports. Yet they added that no system is foolproof.

"It's not just the machine that builds security," said John Groh, senior vice president at ES&S. "It's an entire process. It's who is allowed to stand at the machine. It's how the machines are unloaded and secured at the polling places. It's a whole group of procedures that must be followed to ensure security."

Broward purchased 5,000 machines from ES&S as part of the $17.2 million deal in December 2001.

Commissioners initially wanted to buy a cheaper optical-scan election system in which voters fill in ovals on a ballot next to their favored candidates and then machines read the paper forms to count the votes. But Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant rallied residents behind electronic voting as more efficient and accurate and persuaded the board to reverse course.

Oliphant said she still supports technology and said the commissioners are to blame for any problems because they did not buy the type of touch screens she wanted. "The Broward County commissioners overruled my recommendation and that of experienced supervisors around the country," she said.

Commissioners complain now that they were under pressure in late 2001 to make a quick decision because the state Legislature had banned punch cards and they needed a new system for the 2002 elections.

The touch-screen machinery accounted for part of the problems in the 2002 elections in Broward.

During the September primary, election workers found more than 1,000 votes that had not been reported in initial tallies to the state because machines had not been shut down properly. And then in the November election, officials botched the numbers by not including in the tallies ballots cast by English-speaking early voters.

"Hindsight is 20/20, but I wish we had stayed with optical scan," Commissioner Kristin Jacobs said.

Florida election officials have not certified the use of printers with the touch-screen machinery, so county commissioners plan to lobby the Legislature to allow it. County administrators estimate it would cost $1,000 per machine to retrofit the machines to either provide a receipt to the voter or make a printout that is kept in a sealed container.

But ES&S officials said they are uncertain what the cost would be. Groh said the price would depend on technical requirements.

Commissioner Ilene Lieberman initially proposed investigating whether to retrofit the machines with printers, but other commissioners expanded her plan to investigate any options that would allow paper recounts. They told county staff to include looking at whether they should sell or dispose of the touch screens and buy optical scan equipment.

"We owe voters no less than a full review because the right to vote is our most precious right in the country," Lieberman said.

Political writer Buddy Nevins contributed to this report.

Scott Wyman can be reached at swyman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4511.
Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

[dennisw]

I live in Broward and used these touch screens. I much prefer a paper ballot as a record of my vote that is more difficult to tamper with. Optically read paper ballots are the way to go

Perhaps Broward can sell the touch screens to California conties.

[concerned about politics]

That's because Democrats can't use mulitible ballots in touch machines.

A butterfly ballot is wafer thin. Just bending them causes the chads to fall out.
When Democrats are givin multible ballots (in heavely democrat areas where no one is closely monitering anyone) to use in the machine, they' re like cardboard. That's how hanging chads and dimples are created. It's like trying to poke a hole through cardboard with a dull pencil. Many will not break through because one has to push too hard to knock them out.Touch machines allow only one vote per person.

The democrats were so desperate to get another Socialist elected, they tried too hard, and exposed themselves. All eyes are now on the machines, and they're being replaced.

Yes, they have to go, and when they do, democrats will will start to lose in great numbers when democrats can only vote once.
Expect the democrats to change their minds, and start to support the butterfly machine over all others. It's what has been keeping them alive all these years.

[Weimdog]

Broward County may want to buy a few of these -

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3628225979&category=4103

There a steal for $49.00

[_Jim]

When Democrats are givin multible ballots (in heavely democrat areas where no one is closely monitering anyone) to use in the machine, they' re like cardboard. That's how hanging chads and dimples are created.

WHAT are you talking about?

The 'butterfy ballot' system is actually TWO parts: the ballot (a glorified IBM punch card) and a small multiple page 'directory' or book that contains the names, parties, and amendments to choose from -

- the punch card is placed UNDER the little 'booklet' and there are holes that then line up with the candidate's names ...

[PetroniDE]

Why don't we just let the Florida legislature pick the electors and be done with it? The people in Broward county are too stupid to vote. Remember this picture?

[Cobra64]

Other scientists have recommended using the technology only if there is a paper trail that could be audited after elections if necessary.

Any paper trail with every mouse-click on a computer? /sarcasm.

What a crock. These morons would have a problem if they had their flippin' ballots tattood on their backs. And the ACLU on the Left Coast is complaining that blacks are too stupid poke a hole in a piece of paper.

[kevao]

But critics complain electronic voting could be prone to tampering and also is impossible to recount during fix a disputed election.

[bedolido]

I thought we couldn't display the whole article. Sun-Sentinel is supposed to be exerpted.

[Servant of the 9]

Boss Tweed would heve loved a voting system that made recounts and vote audits impossible.

So9

[Cboldt]

Given multiple cards ... does that clear it up?

[concerned about politics]

- the punch card is placed UNDER the little 'booklet' and there are holes that then line up with the candidate's names ...

And if there's more than one ballot under the booklet?
How many democrats does it take to vote 6 times?
One.
How many democrats does it take to vote 100 times?
One. Just walk away and come back for seconds with a second address. Who's watching? Heck, come back as many times as you want.

How does one create a "dent" in a ballot for Gore? Impossable. Can't be done. The slighest pressure pops that 'ol chad right out.
Try it some time. Good luck!

[mommadooo3]

Touch screens for a bunch of old geezers, whose arthritic hands can't be 'controlled'. Just another way for cheating in the voting booth. And HOW would a recount be done...who could tell the difference between a knuckle drag or a wobbly finger?

WHY can't someone come up with a simple solution, like personally WRITING the names of those 'you' are voting for?

[Truth666]

My first experience with e-vote showed me in one second all the "benefits" :
1998 - CNN poll - should NATO attack Yugoslavia ?
After the poll was displaying ca. 80 NO -20 Yes for hours, one minute later it started displaying 49-51 ...

The software was obviously not yet designed for progressive fraud, so they still had to use a real-time fix ...

[narby]

How does one create a "dent" in a ballot for Gore? Impossable. Can't be done. The slighest pressure pops that 'ol chad right out.

Sure you can. All you've got to do is stack up a few hundred cards and use a wire to punch out the appropriate column of chads. If you stack up too many, then it gets too hard to do, and you get a "dent" at the end of the stack where your wire stopped.

At the same time, all voters who voted for the "wrong" candidate got thrown out, because there are two votes for the same office.

This is how some precincts got a 100% vote count for Gore, with some small percentage of thrown out double votes.

The "connect the arrow" or "fill in the oval" paper ballots that are then run through a counter are the best and cheapest. Got to really spend lots of time to generate fake ballots, while with any digital medium, or punch cards that you can stack up, it only takes seconds to change a whole election.

[zeugma]

This is excellent news. Balloting without physical audit trails is extremely dangerous to liberty.

[savedbygrace]

How much does a touch screen PC cost?

How much do you want it to cost?

;-)

[SwinneySwitch]

can you say "morons"?

Sure, "demonrats".

[Cobra64]

Balloting without physical audit trails is extremely dangerous to liberty.

So you do not believe in electronic audit trails? Better notify IBM...

[RonF]

A butterfly ballot is wafer thin. Just bending them causes the chads to fall out.

I've voted with punch-card ballots in Illinois for years. This isn't true, at least not with the ones we use. And after 2000, in our 2002 elections (primary and general), I closely inspected my ballot and found no problems at all with dimpled but not punched holes, hanging chads, chads falling out in unpunched holes if you bend the card, or anything else.

[_Jim]

And if there's more than one ballot under the booklet?
How many democrats does it take to vote 6 times?

I dodn't realize you were talking in a fraudalent way ... still, your description looked incorrect; we've used that style 'machine' for years in out here and I never had a problem. Recently we've started using the Diebold 'touchscreen' machines - I think they're the pits ... distracting reflections off the screens make them hard to read for starters ...

[ijcr]

How do you counter an activist armed with an eraser and a 2b pencil?

If any ATM or gas pump can print a transaction so should the touch screen units.

[RonF]

Sure you can. All you've got to do is stack up a few hundred cards and use a wire to punch out the appropriate column of chads. If you stack up too many, then it gets too hard to do, and you get a "dent" at the end of the stack where your wire stopped.

Run that by me again?

I stack up 10 cards. The wire hits the top card's chad. That's the one that gets the dimple in it. Each chad cushions the one below it, so there's no dimple in any chad below probably card 2 or 3. And, if you press hard enough to dislodge the chads in card 10, or even cause it to bend, the dimpled chad (#1) must have been pushed though card #1 and probably into card #3. There's no dent in the chad at the end of the stack.

[RonF]

And if there's more than one ballot under the booklet?

We use punch card ballots all the time in Illinois. There's no room for more than one punch card under the booklet.

How many democrats does it take to vote 100 times? One. Just walk away and come back for seconds with a second address. Who's watching?

In my precinct, the election judges, both Republican and Democrat. What kind of precinct do you vote in?

[RonF]

Have you ever in your life handled a punch card? Tried to punch a perforated chad out of one? "All you've got to do is stack up a few hundred cards and punch out the appropriate column of chads" indeed. I'm sorry, but that's real stupid.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Actually, I recall an extended interview with an employee of the company that made the Broward voting machines.

When the election fiasco started, they began testing their machines to duplicate the results and discovered that the only way they could get "dimpled" ballots was by putting 10-15 ballots in the machine:  the first few were punched through..the next few were partially punched (Hanging) and the last few were dimpled.

Their final conclusion was that it was statistically impossible to dimple a ballot any other way.....try it with a paperclip and a short stack of paper and you'll see it comes out the same:  you'll poke through the first couple sheets, tear a sheet or two below that, and dimple the sheets after that.

[Diddle E. Squat]

But Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant rallied residents behind electronic voting as more efficient and accurate and persuaded the board to reverse course.

Nine-month inquiry details chaos in Oliphant’s elections office (Broward Co. FL)

Oliphant is forced to surrender reports

Florida Official Criticized Amid Familiar Election Chaos (Oliphant)(2003)

Gov. Bush sets deadline, debates suspending Oliphant from office(2002)

Audit says Oliphant overspent Elections Office budget by $921,263

Oliphant rented house to employee she gave 40% raise

Florida Saga Continues- Broward County "Finds" 104,000 Votes, Oliphant, "Only A Small Problem"

Bush: No late voting hours Governor rejects Oliphant request [Dems looking for ways to cheat](2002)

Election Supervisor Oliphant fires old white lady in wheelchair so Oliphant mom can have her job.

Oliphant relinquishing control of struggling Broward elections office

And that doesn't even get back to articles on her misdeads during the 2000 election.

[Humvee]

FYI, the Broward County Commission is predominantly Democratic. The Elections Supervisor is a Democratic, female of a darker persuasion. She is threatening to sue the County Commission for not giving her all the money she wants. She was almost fired by JEB and is self-serving, corrupt and incompetent. So thank you Dems.

On the other hand, the Palm Beach supervisor, Christine LePore, was, as most everyone will recall, screwed over as the sacrificial lamb by the Dems in 2000. However, she runs an efficient department- and is now a registered independent.

[ItsMyVoteDammit]

Electronic Frontier Foundation has set up an action center for people who would like to send their representative a letter supporting the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003 (HR 2239) to require open-source software and voter-verifiable paper audit trails for all new e-voting machines.

http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2754

[The KG9 Kid]

Theresa LePore.

:)

[zeugma]

No. I don't believe in electronic audit trails when it concerns election equipment.

Anyone involved in computer security will tell you that if you give someone physical access to a computer you are toast.

There must be verifiable paper trails in elections.

[dennisw]

If any ATM or gas pump can print a transaction so should the touch screen units..........


But as the article says it adds $1000 to each unit

[longtermmemmory]

Oliphant is in office for one reason only. her race. She personally campaigned for a touch screen system and was adamant against the optical scan. SHE PAID her employees to set up "educational demonstrations" to push for the optical systems. (can u say kickback?)

Now in light of budget overspending and outright incompetence, she is threatening to take the commision (democrats) to court if she does not get the 14 million she demands for her office. (does the county really need to provide cellphones for everyone?)

The commision actually brought in someone else to do her job on the quiet in order to avoid further humiliation.

There have been complaints about the machines not showing all candidates, the letters are too small, one worker had the memory cartriges OVERNIGHT at home because there was no way for him to turn them over to the elections office. (if he had been dishonest it would have been a night mare)

All the longtime workers with knowledge have been discharge in favor of cronies who know nothing or are just lazy good for gubermental jobs only. The local NAACP is on the record as wanting to make sure that the supervisor's post stays a "black" elected seat. (in other words no other races need apply)

Fraud will happen in broward again.

[NautiNurse]

Hey--thanks for posting the Opliphant Summary list. She's still non-stick and bulletproof.

[G.Mason]

"Broward considers dumping $17 million in touch voting machines"

Won't help.

The south east side of the state is "out of touch"!

[supercat]

Have you ever in your life handled a punch card? Tried to punch a perforated chad out of one? "All you've got to do is stack up a few hundred cards and punch out the appropriate column of chads" indeed. I'm sorry, but that's real stupid.

If about 75% of the cards have a hole punched in a particular column, the needle trick can turn that into 100%. If not enough people voted for Gore to start with, however, then punching through the stack becomes much harder.

[supercat]

How do you counter an activist armed with an eraser and a 2b pencil?

In DuPage County (IL) they do it by equipping voting booths with pens.

[supercat]

So you do not believe in electronic audit trails? Better notify IBM...

Electronic audit trails are good if there are multiple cross-checks, enough of which are under the control of trusted people.

When someone makes a withdrawal from the ATM, he gets a record of the withdrawal; at the end of the month, he get a bank statement showing the withdrawal. The person can check the bank statement for consistency with the transactions he made, and can check to ensure that the change in his account balance is consistent with his transactions.

Meanwhile the machine can be audited to ensure that the amount of currency dispensed is consistent with the amount of money wired to it, and that all the money wired to it is traceable to someone's account.

Even if only a small fraction of people check their bank statements, large-scale systemic fraud is unlikely to escape unnoticed for long.

Unfortunately, secret ballots make this sort of cross-check auditing impossible. For various reasons, it is important that voters not be able to prove how they voted. Consequently, all evidence of how a person voted must be left with potentially-untrusted people. It is thus necessary to provide physical protections beyond those required for most financial transactions.

[pointsal]

Who gets the $16-million sales "commission"?