Reno Update: Broward County Now Reports Uncounted Votes

AP ^ | 9/15/02

[11th Earl of Mar]

By Associated Press

September 15, 2002, 5:32 AM EDT

MIAMI --

Election workers in Janet Reno's stronghold of Broward County have found uncounted votes from last week's primary, though officials didn't say how many.

The votes were found Saturday in a precinct that first reported no votes, said Willie Weslie, project manager with Election Systems & Software Inc., which made the touchscreen voting machines used in the county.

That precinct, with 832 registered voters, was among 247 that Reno has asked officials to review in her battle with Bill McBride for the Democratic nomination.

"I don't know what happened in every case. I just know 1/8poll workers 3/8 had procedures and didn't follow them," said Weslie.

Weslie said poll workers in the precinct should have inserted a cartridge in the machines, which would have collected the votes when polls closed. But they did not, he said, so the empty cartridge made it appear that no votes were cast.

Workers examined touchscreen voting machines until shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday, and were expected to continue Sunday. The deadline for counties to report official vote tallies to the state is 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Election Supervisor Miriam Oliphant's office would not discuss the uncounted votes.

"Once the process is complete, the supervisor of elections will have a statement with respect to that and every other issue her office feels is necessary to assure the voters of Broward County that every vote will be counted," said spokesman Rick Riley.

Reno trailed McBride by 8,196 votes in unofficial counts from the state. The 247 precincts she asked to be reviewed have 15,841 voters.

Reno has also asked Miami-Dade County officials to check for lost votes. Officials there found more than 1,800 uncounted votes from four precincts Thursday, and were reviewing touchscreen voting machines to determine if more were unreported.

Miami and Broward counties used the same touchscreen machines made by Election Systems & Software.

Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

And why are the absent poll workers not being called to the carpet? Fined? publically named and fired? Questioned? Interviewed by the media and made to be rightiously shamed? They disobeyed an executive order, will they be arrested?

This sounds all to surreal to be true, how low can the democrats get?

[Goldwater Girl]

YIKES! Forgot the gun haters-
Make that:
Help us reditribute the wealth, dismantle the Constitution, and grow government.

[marajade]

Why did she refuse the Republicans' offer of help to man the polls knowing that hundreds of Dem pollworkers didn't show up? Is she or those who failed to show in violation of the law?

[Paleo Conservative]

The incompetence of the poll workers should not be rewarded.

Absolutely!

All precincts should have to report the number of voters who cast votes immediately after the polls close and before any of the ballots are counted.

[Goldwater Girl]

Can't answer that- no clue what, if anything, they plan to do about it, or whether there is currently a penalty in law. They seem to be dismissing it as poll workers being "overwhelmed" with change and new technology. One report indicates the disproportionate failure in minority (black) precincts is due to a lack of computer literate voters in the precinct.

Surely, with the majority of poll workers statewide being retired folks- and no other counties having mass no shows- it would seem reasonable to assume the other 65 counties in Florida spent the time necessary to teach them what they needed to know. Dade gave them only 3 hours of training- Broward only 4- obviously not enough.

I would also like to know why, if they felt they couldn't do the job, they wouldn't just say so up front, and let the Supervisors arrange for replacements. There is something more to this story we don't know.

I will look into the existing law, and see whether we need to create some kind of fine (at LEAST) for dereliction of duty. To my knowledge, this has never happened before, so I'm not sure the Legislature contemplated something like this in the election reform passed last year.
The big counties have to recruit and train thousands of poll workers for every election (Broward had more than 6,000, Dade almost that number) and are also required to be bi- or multi-lingual by federal mandate. One freeper suggested making election day a national holiday, to widen the pool of potential poll workers, and that may be a good idea, as voting technology becomes more sophisticated. (Maryland now allows high school students to be poll workers, as they had problems teaching touch screen procedures to their elderly poll workers. Florida law would not permit that- workers must be registered voters within the precinct, and represent evenly the parties.)


Meanwhile- pray that Reno gets enough new votes to be the nominee- or at least takes it to court to demand a recount statewide. It will leave their party in complete disarray- forced to support the weakest candidate in November, and kill weeks of campaign time before November.

[marajade]

"All precincts should have to report the number of voters who cast votes immediately after the polls close and before any of the ballots are counted."

I think they tried to do this and they found huge discrepancies in the numbers...

[Goldwater Girl]

Oliphant's pre-election stacking of the poll workers that left out Republicans was in violation of Florida law- Secretary Smith went down there and read her the riot act, and Republicans were there on election day. The no-shows were unexpected- trained workers just didn't appear.

She had fallen very short of the 6000 people she needed, and got a last minute infusion of county employees to fill in some gaps. They pulled more out of their offices to man the empty polls election day, to at least get them open, albeit not on time (without any training at all, I assume.)

WHY she refused help, I can't say. Other supervisors in the state report she is clueless, and unwilling to admit it and ask for assistance. It would seem to me there is a good case for dereliction of duty, misfeasance, or malfeasance of an elected official- but the Democrats in power in the county rallied around her and prepared to fight Jeb if he suspended her. Alcee Hastings (impeached Judge, and local Congressman) even said that NOTHING Oliphant had done came close to the crimes of Katherine Harris in Election 2000- and was cheered by the moronic faithful.

[marajade]

"and got a last minute infusion of county employees to fill in some gaps."

Isn't that some kind of violation in conflict of interest? I know as a state worker for AZ I'm very limited as to any kind of a role I could have in a campaign...

[harpo11]

Florida Ballot Counter

[browardchad]

They are framing Bush

Well, demo election supervisor for Broward, Miriam Oliphant, was dragged over the coals today by a leftist columnist for the local multi-culti liberal rag.

For 20+ years, we had a Republican supervisor, Jane Carroll (who no one blamed for the 2000 election), and the old punch machines. No problems.

2000 came along, and we all know the results. Now the Dems have a scab they can keep picking (much like medicare) that they can make fail at will through what the columnist surprisingly called an "enemy of democracy" (Oliphant).

I think this is a dress rehearsal for the November election. If so, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

[Goldwater Girl]

Yes- we have restrictions on campaign activities for government employees, too but poll workers are not campaign workers-cannot be, in Florida.
Poll workers are paid by the county for their impartial service on election day. Most come from party executive committees, as the law requires all parties be represented at each poll. Most are retirees, as the law requires they be registered voters in the precinct, and the work day is from 6am to 9pm, which cuts out most working people. They are trained by local supervisors on the dos and don't of interaction with voters.
Campaign workers serve as poll watchers- but are prohibited from interacting with voters inside the polling place. They can only watch- and not speak. Also no campaign literature or signs or anything permitted within 50 feet of the polling place- so they are anonymous faces inside. They make sure voters are not influenced inside the polls, and report any problems they witness.

[Goldwater Girl]

Agreed- Republicans need to man every poll in November to keep them honest. I know you are vastly outnumbered- but sure hope RPOF pitches in to help you out. Those of us in Republican country would be happy to come over and work, but they have to change the rules to let us in. Keep on them!
If this keeps up, November will be worse than Election 2000.

[windchime]

That's a good idea. They would count the signatures of the voters in the register and call it in to the Elections Office.

[CyberAnt]

"deserve to vote"

Huh?? Voting is a RESPONSIBILITY! You don't deserve to vote, you have the right to vote, but that means you need to be responsible enough to learn how to use the equipment. The same goes for knowing who the candidates are and what they stand for.

[windchime]

Oops, just read #106. Forgot they couldn't count.

[JulieRNR21]

Just found the following on AP Breaking which indicates that Reno may have a case that 'votes were not counted'. However the blame lies with incompetent or perhaps deliberately negiligent poll workers, NOT Governor Jeb Bush:

The Associated Press

MIAMI (Sept. 15) - Election workers in Janet Reno's stronghold of Broward County have found uncounted votes from last week's primary, though officials didn't say how many.

The votes were found Saturday in a precinct that first reported no votes, said Willie Weslie, project manager with Election Systems & Software Inc., which made the touchscreen voting machines used in the county.

That precinct, with 832 registered voters, was among 247 that Reno has asked officials to review in her battle with Bill McBride for the Democratic nomination.

``I don't know what happened in every case. I just know poll workers had procedures and didn't follow them,'' said Weslie.

Weslie said poll workers in the precinct should have inserted a cartridge in the machines, which would have collected the votes when polls closed. But they did not, he said, so the empty cartridge made it appear that no votes were cast.

Workers examined touchscreen voting machines until shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday, and were expected to continue Sunday. The deadline for counties to report official vote tallies to the state is 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Election Supervisor Miriam Oliphant's office would not discuss the uncounted votes.

``Once the process is complete, the supervisor of elections will have a statement with respect to that and every other issue her office feels is necessary to assure the voters of Broward County that every vote will be counted,'' said spokesman Rick Riley.

Reno trailed McBride by 8,196 votes in unofficial counts from the state. The 247 precincts she asked to be reviewed have 15,841 voters.

Reno has also asked Miami-Dade County officials to check for lost votes. Officials there found more than 1,800 uncounted votes from four precincts Thursday, and were reviewing touchscreen voting machines to determine if more were unreported.

Miami and Broward counties used the same touchscreen machines made by Election Systems & Software.

[JulieRNR21]

See post #116

[Cvengr]

Yeah, ya know, one thing about voter fraud and crime in general. When ya get away with it, everybody and their brother who knew how it worked, now seems to think they can do it also. It sortof repeats itself, and then all of the sudden everybody except the frauds realize what's happening.

Wouldn't be surprised if a good ol' fashioned lynchin' down in FLA takes out all the democratic socialists.

[Spirited]

"These votes should not count."

That is an understatement. If this is allowed to stand we will have a new high in finding votes.

At this rate our having "free elections" is a sham. We certainly seem to have "fixed elections" if we can "find" votes only a week later and only to boost the loser.

We used to smile at elections in other nations. Now we need to cry about our own.

[Goldwater Girl]

Incompetant, negligent -- or INADEQUATELY TRAINED- NONE of which is Jeb's fault. And poll worker training is the county SUPERVISORS responsibility- how typical of them to pass the buck for their own inadequacies.
And it doesn't address the disenfranchisement caused by the hundreds of poll workers that just didn't show up at all on election day, or quit at 7pm depite the Executive order.

Did you see the piece about Oliphant with the comments by Kurt Browning, Pasco County Supervisor? (St.Pete Times, I think, I read it here this morning)He was less than kind about her grasp of the duties of her office.