Reno blames JEB (Return to Chads?)

Knight Ridder Newspapers ^ | 09/14/02 | PETER WALLSTEN AND LESLEY CLARK

[SES1066]

[Exerpt]Reno's camp may sue over touch screens used in Florida primary
MIAMI - (KRT) - Janet Reno's campaign for governor is trying to build a sweeping case against the now-infamous touch-screen voting machines that campaign officials believe may be responsible for Reno losing the Democratic nomination.

The case, summarized in a draft document obtained by The Herald, would not be used to challenge the results of last week's election, even if Bill McBride is certified Tuesday as the nominee, campaign officials said Saturday.

Instead, the evidence would become part of a larger effort to put the blame for Florida's latest election fiasco at the feet of Gov. Jeb Bush and the election reform law he signed with great fanfare last year.

"What we're doing is far more important than whoever the nominee is," said Reno campaign manager Mo Elleithee.

[rintense]

What a frickin joke. The Dems are crying again. How long before we see Carol Roberts????

[FreedomFriend]

Tamper-proof? Any machine's data is based upon what has been entered into it, albeit through legal or illegal means.

[537 Votes]

Jeb's response: "This was a Democrat supervised election in Democrat controlled districts. Republican supervised elections in Republican controlled districts didn't have these problems. Clean up your house before you criticize mine."

Alternative reponse: Send in the tanks, with loudspeakers blaring, "This is not an attack, this is not an attack!"

[Ann Archy]

She's way to pretty to be a Democrat!! I thought I saw a dykey lookng "female" that was Oliphant. Just another run of the mill Dem, I guess.

[Kath]

LOL???? Or how about bring the Dems in the voting room and have a show of hands. Now Democrat can raise their hands, can't they??????

[SES1066]

...my dads a cop. trust me, comps have records of everything.

Not quite and not always. My credentials are 30+ years programming and working with both hardware and software. What your dad is most likely referring to is that when a computer is seized in a surprise raid, there is almost NOTHING that a perp can do that will permanently remove data on a computer. If the police are careful, even erase triggering anti-tampering controls can be circumvented. Note that this applies to data stored on magnetic media and static memory devices. Anything that is based on constant power like DRAM is lost when power is off for any length of time.

When the user deletes files with the standard delete function, the data is not really lost until some other data over-writes it and even then really sophisticated operators and software can recover portions of it due to certain physical characteristics of magnetic storage. There is software available that does what is called a 'scrub' of data that you really want gone. Generally it makes multiple passes of the file area laying down as random a pattern of binary bits as can be done. This is what the DoD and other security agencies do when erasing sensitive data from their own computers.

[T]hey print out the records as they come, like a reciept ...

This maybe true on some voting machines but not on the electronic ones that we are using in my Florida County. The data is stored in a 'secure' on-board memory and is also sent (periodically?) to a polling place accumulator where it is sent via modem to the SoE Central Office. If everything works right, at the end of the voting day the poll workers state how many voters they have processed and the counts match to the transmissions and then the on-board memories can be cleared for the following election.

I don't like or completely trust it though and would have preferred a type that is called a 'mark-sense' system where you still actually mark a ballot by adding a mark on it. You then take it to the 'reader' which then checks for any 'over-votes' [remember them?] and if that is OK you get get a paper receipt showing your votes, the marked ballot is saved for a confirmation trail and the vote is tallied through the reader.

My understanding is that many counties here in Florida, faced with replacing the 'Chads', liked the touch screen voting because there were no consumables used that cost money each election. With the mark-sense you use paper and ink but I really like the audit trail!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

No, she's too pretty...but criminally negligent, imho.

This was all happening before the Broward County primary last Tues.:

(Broward official fears chaotic elections office will torpedo primary vote (Election MESS Brewing)
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel ^ | September 6 2002 | Scott Wyman and Buddy Nevins

Posted on 09/06/2002 8:04 AM Eastern by PJ-Comix

Even as election officials sought to reassure voters that next week's primary will go smoothly despite turmoil over new polling places and inaccurate registration cards, the leader of the Broward County Commission charged the area is careening toward another election disaster.

Commission Chairwoman Lori Parrish, who serves on the three-member Canvassing Board that certifies the election results, said Thursday that the process has been too rife with problems to run properly on Tuesday.

Excerpted - Full Article ^

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Facing the big test, elections office is flailing (Broward Elections Supervisor A Nutcase)
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel ^ | September 5, 2002 | Michael Mayo

Posted on 09/05/2002 5:25 PM Eastern by PJ-Comix

It's simple, really. After the mother of all election snafus in 2000, the one thing Broward can't afford is another election snafu.

So we spent $17 million on fancy new touch-screen voting machines, which are supposed to be idiot-proof. Unfortunately, the people in charge still aren't.

There's no doubt Miriam Oliphant, the well-connected first-term supervisor of elections, is an effective, adept politician. Whether she's capable of running a complex operation that serves nearly a million voters is another story.

Excerpted - Full Article ^

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Dem. SOE's anti-GOP training video, excerpt.

Election officials edit training video following GOP complaints [Broward County] (AP)
AP ^ | August 11, 2002 | AP

Posted on 08/11/2002 10:20 AM Eastern by summer

Election officials edit training video following GOP complaints

Sunday, August 11, 2002

Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE - Broward County election officials nixed a segment from a poll worker training video after some Republicans complained it negatively portrayed a GOP voter.

Election's office employees were used as actors in the video which shows eight scenarios, ranging from how to handle voters with disabilities and language problems to voters who are belligerent.

The segment in question - the scenario on belligerence - showed a white voter, who identified himself as a Republican, verbally abusing a black poll worker.

"I'm voting Republican and do you want to know why? All Democrats are communists," the voter tells the poll worker in the video.

"Sir, you are wrong, I'm a Democrat and I'm certainly not a communist," responds the poll worker.

"You're a Democrat? Then you're a communist just like the rest of them. You people shouldn't even be here," the voter says.

The video later makes the point that poll workers should not argue with voters about political issues, they should just thank them and ignore any other comments.

"Our job was to portray offensive situations and how to handle it," said Bob Cantrell, a spokesman for Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant. "These are real life situations that have happened."

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Broward elections official assailed by GOP, still short of poll workers (Political Cleansing)
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel ^ | September 5 2002 | Buddy Nevins & Scott Wyman

Posted on 09/05/2002 5:12 PM Eastern by PJ-Comix

State officials were asked Wednesday to rule on whether Broward County Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant's plans for this year's elections violate Florida law. The request for a state ruling came the same day the supervisor conceded she was in "dire need of a minimum of 112 volunteers" to staff next Tuesday's primary. The volunteers would staff 14 locations where votes will be transmitted via modems to the Broward County elections office's central computers.

Excerpted - Full Article ^

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SOE Miriam Oliphant

[AlexW]

This is just a new branch of Cook County, IL, where the
dead and dumb can vote...The Dems will be doing this everywhere.

[SES1066]

See my reply to MacDorcha #66 about the voting machine process. I can't help but wonder if I were to wander in a polling place with a honking powerful electro-magnet, what would happen?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Oh, and we're being accused of racism...again.

Florida REPUBLICANS Comment Thread:

Freeper comments from Florida Vote Goes from Chad to Worse, posted by MeeknMing.

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In Miami-Dade, nearly half of the ballots that were still uncounted Wednesday were cast by black voters.

are the ballots stamped with the voter's race??

9 posted on 9/12/02 7:00 AM Eastern by TxBec

The problem is not the machines, it's the people using them.

19 posted on 9/12/02 7:31 AM Eastern by Lil'freeper

The Sun Sentinel adds this:-

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, said nothing Oliphant is accused of rises to the level of misdeeds he thinks were committed by former Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the 2000 election. He said Bush would face the wrath of black voters in the November election if he removes Oliphant.

"I dare the governor to remove her," Hastings said. "He'll create a firestorm that will eclipse the one he created in the One Florida plan. He'll need Katherine Harris to count the votes for him again."

Racism at it's worst.

26 posted on 9/12/02 8:20 AM Eastern by ijcr

Oliphant compounded her problems by firing all experience workers and hiring all her cronies.

Perhaps the secretary of state needs to send supervisors for the surpervisors. Video cameras to tape constantly the whereabouts of the voting machines.

30 posted on 9/12/02 9:14 AM Eastern by Greeklawyer

And good old Alcee knows about misdeeds-remember, he's an impeached federal judge.

31 posted on 9/12/02 9:19 AM Eastern by 91B

[SES1066]

I was just wondering if this was that same county! Thanks for the timely reminder and confirmation. That bit about her needing another 112 volunteers means that there must have been a shortage of paid positions and an unwillingness to solicit non-Dems to work! I presume that she has already employed all of her relatives [/sarcasm]. Can I hope that she will still be on the job through November? Then again, no county is 100% Dem so probably, if she stays, the GOP precints will be open from 07:00 to 07:00:00.000000000001 and then from 18:59:59.99999 (you get the idea).

[cubreporter]

Exactly!!! Face it Janet Reno you LOST! Can you say: "Elian?"

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

LoL! I hope Ms. Oliphant gets kicked out on her corrupt keyster. There are many Republicans...and Dem. Jeb fans in Broward County. (^:

Gov. Bush received a warm welcome from some black voters in
Broward County, FL on a recent campaign stop.

For more info on Gov. Bush's successful meeting with the above black voters in Broward County, read this rave review from a Ft. Lauderdale columnist:

Column: Jeb! bulldozing; Democrats just dozing
[A RAVE review for Jeb from Broward County!]
Thanks, summer.

[Let's Roll]

Yeah, we oughta have an IQ test to get a driver's license too but that ain't gonna happen either.

[Pushi]

...the campaign has consulted with an expert who has studied the machines in use.

Among the allegations: touch-screen machines suffer from the buildup of smudges as more people vote that create inaccuracies, some voters saw the wrong candidate's name light up when they touched the screen, many machines may not have properly calculated votes, and some machines had more than the typical percentage of ballots without a vote in a governor's race.

Was the "expert" who studied the machines in use telling people how to vote? I did not think anyone should be in the voting booth except the voter.

If demonrats would wash their hands once in a while, especially after going to the bathroom, they may not have so many "smudges" on the touch screen.

I personally think that vote stealing is so deeply ingrained in every demonrat that they just can't resist even in their own primaries where one demonrat is running against another demonrat.

Another point. They have nobody to blame but themselves. Everywhere I have ever been, the parties run their own primaries. I have never seen members of one party working in the primary of another. Also, isn't it strange that it only happened in the two counties involved--both demonrat-controlled counties. I read somewhere that the poll workers were so dumb that they did not even know enough to plug the machines into the electrical outlet.

[fortcollins]

History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second as farce

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

if jiggles was forced to use the old punch card we would still be waiting for her to vote she couldnt put the stylet in that little hole if she tried

[scouse]

touch-screen voting machines

In California they have, or had when I lived there, touch-screen machines for playing lotto and purchasing scratch-off tickets, and they never even had to educate their customers on how to use them

[MacDorcha]

"there is almost NOTHING that a perp can do that will permanently remove data on a computer. If the police are careful, even erase triggering anti-tampering controls can be circumvented"

thats exactly what i was reffering to, thnx for the input. i did try to carefully word it so that peopel knew that some info can be lost forever, but most of the time, at least some type of stamp of it remains. if my wording sounded like anything else, i'm sorry. i talked to my dad a bit about it and some of my previous statement was mislead, thnx again for clearing it up. in no way do i calim im an authority(esp. over someone with that much exposure to the field)