Posted on 07/11/2004 5:28:03 PM PDT by wagglebee
Florida's relatively new touch-screen voting machines, touted as a solution to the state's 2000 presidential election meltdown, didn't perform as well as machines that use an older technology during a statewide election earlier this year, according to a South Florida Sun-Sentinel analysis.
Records from the March 9 Democratic presidential primary show that votes were not recorded for one out of 100 voters using the new ATM-style machines. That's at least eight times more than the number of flawed votes cast in the same election with pencil marks on paper ballots tallied by an optical scanner.
Experts blame Florida's political leaders for embracing the relatively sophisticated touch-screen machines before they were perfected and made more user-friendly.
Fifteen Florida counties now use touch-screen machines, including Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade.
In December 2001, Broward County chose a $17.2 million touch-screen system over a pencil-and-paper system priced at no more than $5 million. Earlier that year, in May, Palm Beach County agreed to pay $14 million for touch-screens, compared to $3 million for the simpler system.
"Would I have bought them? No," Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes said about the touch-screens. She started as supervisor after the machines were in use. "Were we too fast? Yes."
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
Guess what? If you don't vote, the computer doesn't count it as a vote. I guess that the pencil mark system must have been counting non votes. I trust the computer much more than the optical scanner.
So this is the latest complaint by the RATS. Last night, the FL Secretary of State found that procedures to bar certain ex-felons from voting were flawed and decided to let all ex-felons register to vote. Now the RATS are whining about touch screens. After the FL 2000 Recount, the RATS were the ones who demanded that voting equipment be updated. RATS just wanted to be anointed the winners.
How much do you trust the people who program the computers? I could put a couple of lines of code that would compare the votes cast and swap the votes if the Rat candidate was behind at one second before the polls closed and then have it erase itself after it was done. This, of course, is made much easier since the algorithm and code used in the machines is secret.
Go back to paper and pen and manual counting.
Experts blame Florida's political leaders for embracing the relatively sophisticated touch-screen machines..."However, as you read further you find:
In December 2001, Broward County chose a $17.2 million touch-screen system over a pencil-and-paper system priced at no more than $5 million. Earlier that year, in May, Palm Beach County agreed to pay $14 million for touch-screens, compared to $3 million for the simpler system.Guess what they never tell you? That the Supervisors and County Commissions that made tha choice are all DEMOCRATS!!! Not once in the entire article was that mentioned! Perhaps the authors thought that was understood when they said the counties chose the more expensive (and riskier) solution.
Just when they thought they'd idiot-proofed the voting system...they discovered bigger idiots.
the code for voting machines should be public and tested to compile to an exact binary match
Yes, it should be made public MONTHS before an election so that ANYONE could download and examine it. And it should also be tested before and after the election to make sure it matched.
Yes, it should be made public MONTHS before an election so that ANYONE could download and examine it. And it should also be tested before and after the election to make sure it matched.
When Al Gore challenged the last Florida election, it was pretty clear that never again would we have an election that wasn't contested.
Notice Kerry is already lining up lawyers to contest the results.
As to the touch screens, anybody that can operate an ATM can operate a touch screen.
They repeatedly ask you if you want to cast a vote for a particular office, if your vote hasn't been recorded for that office.
In a local election, I chose to not vote for either candidate in one particular race, and the machine let me know I hadn't voted in that race, and let the machine know that that was okay, then and only then would it cast my final votes.
So if the Dems are so concerned, let them start classes to explain how to vote on the machines. There are volunteers in the polling place to demonstrate a "non voting" machine, for anybody that doesn't understand them.
The argument that the technology is too sophisticated is bogus!
FMCDH(BITS)
***the code for voting machines should be public and tested to compile to an exact binary match***
Sounds interesting. Could you put that in English, please?
The pencil/optical-scan system worked very well for a number of years in the county where I vote. Of course, now, they've switched to the touch-screen system.
Well as long as you use programmers from this country, I think there is no problem. It is, after all, what I have done for about 26 years. Any doubts should be removed by thorough testing. Once code is written, it will always execute the same way given the same circumstances.
Of course, I would hope that security is of highest caliber. However, if it is in governments hands that is doubtful (think Los Alamos). The private company I work for has much tighter security.
Anyway, I digress. I think that counting electronic ballots will always be more accurate than the method we witnessed four years ago. Punch cards are what the RATS have always used to steal elections. Of course, they don't want a foolproof counting system.
Please, no profanity.
You're right, but I have no doubt the 'Rats will find a way to challenge the results if Bush wins.
Not only that but wasn't it the Demoncraps after the 2000 elections, that were screaming and yelling that butterfly ballots were an outdated system that disenfranchised stupid people? And they demanded that the whole state upgrade to touch-screen machies?
Obstructionists, I tell you. Obstructionists.
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