Votes from 134 residents were not counted

Herald ^ | 1/7/04 | ERIKA BOLSTAD

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Ballots cast by 134 voters in a special election Tuesday weren't counted, apparently because people failed to use touch-screen machines properly.

It's the electronic equivalent of a voter failing to punch a stylus all the way through on a paper ballot, leaving a hanging chad.

Only with electronic voting, there's no way to review the ballot and determine how a person wanted to vote. The vote is not counted, and in this case, the vote of 134 people who left polling places without hitting the ''vote'' button on the machines was not counted.

The Broward Supervisor of Elections office wasn't able for comment Wednesday, when candidates in the race and the county mayor brought the so-called ''undervotes'' to the attention of the public.

Although the number of people who didn't finish casting their ballots is a relatively small percentage, said Broward County Mayor Ilene Lieberman, it seems unlikely that anyone would come out for such a small election with no intention of voting.

Seven candidates were on the ballot in the special election for the District 91 state House Seat left vacant by Connie Mack. Ellyn Bogdanoff won the race by 12 votes, making the 134 votes even more meaningful.

''It's incomprehensible that 134 people went to the polls and didn't cast votes,'' said Lieberman, who served on the canvassing board that oversaw Tuesday night's count.

But the winning candidate, Ellyn Bogdanoff, said she attributes at least some of the undervote to Democrats who reached the polls and realized all the candidates were Republicans.

Oliver Parker, the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea mayor who lost the race, wouldn't comment Wednesday. A spokesman for his campaign said that Parker is weighing his options for tomorrow's recount -- mandated by state law because the race was so close.

But it does seem strange that so many people would go to the polls for a small, special election and then not vote, said Chas Brady, a spokesman for Parker. Especially in an election where only one race was on the ballot, Brady said.

''It's not as though they're on page 5 and are tied of voting,'' he said.

[b4its2late]

Just practicing for November.....

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[ladyinred]

Okay, this is a case of misleading news reports. It isn't that their votes "weren't counted." It is that they DIDN'T CAST A VOTE! This is how Al Gore got away with his attempted coup in Florida in 2000! The spin is already starting for 2004!

[The Old Hoosier]

Only with electronic voting, there's no way to review the ballot and determine how a person wanted to vote.

Thank goodness.

[PaulJ]

Good point.

[libstripper]

If they're too dumb to push the "vote" button, then they were too dumb to vote in the first place.

[sirshackleton]

I think we should just go back to taking a slip of paper and writing the name of the person you want to be President/Senator/Representative/American Idol and leave it at that. If you can't do that correctly, tough.

[Huck]

Ditto that.

[NonValueAdded]

Leave it to a democRATic led county to find a way to make things worse when it comes to FloriDUH voting. Yes, '04 protest testing was successful. Thanks Sister Mary Oliphant.

Confidential to TC: I don't know how other FReepers, but your Tahoma font is very difficult to read in Netscape.

[Izzy Dunne]

r

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Oops! This letter fell out of the last sentence in the article - see if you can find out where...

[Izzy Dunne]

Ballots cast by 134 voters in a special election Tuesday weren't counted

Hmmm. at what point is a ballot "cast"?
In my town, it is "cast" whan I stuff the paper in the locked box.
On an E-vote machine, I would expect it to be when you punch the "CAST VOTE" button.
Given that these folks didn't do that, why do they word it like this?

[revtown]

Instead of being like "not pushing the stylus thru and causing a hanging chad" like the article said.
Its more like punching all the chads out, but walking out of the polling place with your card and not turning it in.

[expatpat]

Of course, it's quite possible that some of them started to vote, felt their Depends filling, up and had to come back a few minutes later to make a complete vote.

[RhoTheta]

It plays OK on Mozilla (the real Netscape).

[kitkat]

Weren't these machines behind a curtain for privacy? And wasn't there an election monitor outside each curtain? So why isn't there a code written into the electronics that flashes a light outside when the "voted and it's been counted" button is pushed? If there was such a device, the election monitor would be able to tell the voter to PUSH THE BUTTON.

[Protagoras]

Easily corrected. An alert can be built in to tell people they haven't voted until the hit the "send" button.

[KarlInOhio]

The dems need an infrared detector like some urinals have so they can flush automatically when you step away.

[steplock]

Know what else is missing from all the news stories?

How many voted all together?

What percentage of these voters were too stupid?!!

.

[freedomcrusader]

Good grief. Even with the "manual" voting machines where you depress levers to indicate the candidates of your choice, you still have to push a big red button to say your done and register your vote (and cause the curtains to open).

These folks either intentionally chose no candidate or were complete idiots unworthy of choosing their leaders.