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

[Spirited]

Having precincts report immediately the number of voters that day is a sterling idea. That should be advanced to the highest level.

The "hanky panky" we are seeing continually is downright unnerving. This might help in some degree to limit what can be "found" later.

One thing we knew immediately upon closing is the number of voters we had seen that day. It is an easy thing to report and would also help if the machines are "misread".

There should be a penalty for any delay and a time limit of some kind on this with less than one-half hour to get the report in.

[Goldwater Girl]

Cyberant- this time it wasn't the voters who didn't know how to use the equipment- it was the poll workers who didn't know how to get the votes cast transferred onto the backup tape to be counted at election headquarters. Lots of precincts showed no voters- or a single voter, when in reality hundreds of people showed up and cast a vote- and raised hell when they saw their vote didn't count.
That's what Reno is trying to correct- Dade & Broward are now downloading the votes, so they can be counted. She is entirely justified, INHO.

[CyberAnt]

Thanks for clarifying that!

However, there were several reports of people who could not use the equipment.

The point I was trying to make was that as a citizen, it is our responsibility to know how to use the equipment and to carefully choose who we are voting for.

And ... that responsibility would also include poll workers' knowledge of how the equipment works. Before I went precinct walking, I went to a training class to learn how to do it correctly.

[Salvation]

The dim dems

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Ok smart guy. The finger is pointed at Jeb Bush now. Who's face is on that picture now?

Reno blames JEB (Return to Chads?)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/751153/posts

[Political Junkie Too]

Even though I haven't lived in Broward County since the late 1970's, I'm convinced that the poll workers thought the machines were working perfectly because they kept flashing 12:00, just like their VCRs at home.

-PJ

[fortheDeclaration]

I agree with your assessment of Florida politics.

The problem is that the Dem. Party shouldn't be doing it to each other!

How many of the anti-Reno voters are going to turn out for her if she does pull it out?

I have no doubt that her people tried to steal it in the areas she controlled, but she never expected to be that far behind, it was probably intended for padding purposes, not for 'stealing' a win.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

South Florida's voting machine trouble could be used as weapon against Bush

[summer]

RE post #116 - Very interesting article. THhanks for the ping. BTW, several Dem voters I know who had no problem voting in Central FL think Dade and Broward County Election Supervisors are IDIOTS (and not Gov Bush).

[summer]

THhanks = Thanks

[Goldwater Girl]

Good in theory- but Florida may be too big for it to work.
We have 8million voters-3 million of whom live in Dade,Broward & Palm Beach. Broward has 780 precincts, Dade 754- presents an impossible task for phone lines to handle.

E-mail from the precinct might work (they would provide a time and date stamp when sent), but security concerns about hacking into open modem lines stopped Florida from hooking the precincts up by modem.

There is a physical voter roll, signed by each voter who turns up, which is compared to the votes cast before final certification, but that is not done immediately on election night. And it would require poll workers to go through a book of 2000+ names, manually counting signatures for reporting election night. I'm not sure that's a good plan- we've seen how well they count down there.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Snip... from the articloe in post 128.

"Eleven counties in Florida used the iVotronic equipment Tuesday, but only Miami-Dade and Broward had serious problems. The election supervisors in the four counties with systems identical to those in Miami-Dade and Broward told The Herald that their elections went smoothly."

[Goldwater Girl]

Voter responsibility has been spelled out in the new Florida law- so if they have problems using the system, and choose not to get help- too bad. I read about one guy in Miami who refused to ask for help, because it was more important to him that his ballot be secret than that it be counted. All Rightie, then.

Here's an article about the training (or lack of same) provided to poll workers you might find interesting.
http://www.broward.com/mld/broward/news/local/4077013.htm

[floriduh voter]

Re: 107. Affirmative Action at its best in Broward County.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

McBride campaign hurt

[floriduh voter]

Yes, of course there are the sign-in logs. Who has custody of those books? That could prove who voted that day at the very least. The people who got turned away never reached the sign-in books or did they? IS THE TURNING AWAY UNTRUE? Once you're signed in, you get to vote?

What you can't measure is if Janet finds people who alleged they were turned away BEFORE they could sign in. Those could be votes that Janet could try to mine before Tuesday. Even if they were at home on their couches all day Tuesday. You see what I'm saying?

[Paleo Conservative]

There is a physical voter roll, signed by each voter who turns up, which is compared to the votes cast before final certification, but that is not done immediately on election night. And it would require poll workers to go through a book of 2000+ names, manually counting signatures for reporting election night. I'm not sure that's a good plan- we've seen how well they count down there.

Each pre-printed page has known number of places to put signatures. You should be able to count the number of filled pages very quickly. The partially filled pages should be fairly easy to count because each signature would be next to a number.

[Stultis]

Ok smart guy. The finger is pointed at Jeb Bush now.

Well, DUH! Having screwed up their election through massive incompetence (that's what Dems do) the Dumbocrats are, of course, going to blame it all on the nearest Republican (that's what Dems do).

My point was with regard to your loopy claim that the Democrats did this intentionally just so they could point the finger. Why invoke a conspiracy (especially a risky one that only provides an opportunity for highly implausible finger pointing, and that may well just leave the public laughing at the Dems, or shaking their heads in disgust) when the whole thing can be readily and economically explained by the incompetence of Democratic leaders and the stupidity of their followers?

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I can't believe they are that stupid. Such stupidity is beyond my comprehension. LOL! Actually, McAwful sent someone [his son? I forget] to campaign against Reno. DNC leadership knows she doesn't stand a chance of beating Jeb. That is why I suspect foul play and then of course, pre-plan to dump it on Jeb.

But I think if that was their plan, it's backfiring big time. =]

[Goldwater Girl]

Who has custody of those books?===the chief clerk in each precinct returns them with the machine tabulations election night to the Supervisor of Elections.

The people who got turned away never reached the sign-in books or did they?=== They did not- polls were locked up, empty.

IS THE TURNING AWAY UNTRUE?=== It is true- documented by election monitors from Justice Dept, State elections, and media. It was serious enough for the Governor to order the polls open 2 extra hours statewide.(Which was a 14th Amendment thing- not because there were problems statewide)

Once you're signed in, you get to vote?=== YUP!

What you can't measure is if Janet finds people who alleged they were turned away BEFORE they could sign in.=== These are the "disenfranchised" people- and this time, it's the real deal. Something like 41% of the precincts in Dade were not open at 7am) They won't be counted for this final count certification ongoing now, and final by 5pm Tuesday, but could appear in court if Janet decides to contest the result in court.

If so, (and she says she won't do this)- a judge COULD order a revote in their race. Maybe statewide, maybe just in the screwed up counties. Judges have a lot of latitude. My guess is, it will depend on how many sofa voters swear under oath they were turned away, and how many votes that were not counted initially are found when they recheck the machines.

If the judge is convinced the problems were of such a magnitude, that the results cannot be accepted, it could happen----thanks to the incompetance of 2 Election Supervisors.