Palm Beach County (Fl) elections office is hand copying votes onto good ballots!!!!

[Mika]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/elections/fl-palm-elections-supervisor-problems-20121024,0,5461376.story

Earlier this month, Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher announced that more than half of some 60,000 absentee ballots contained a printing error. The mistake wasn't in the proofs, she said, so her office mailed them out without noticing headings were missing over the names of Florida Supreme Court justices up for retention.
Richard, who now represents three justices on the ballot, said the lack of a heading could confuse voters who might lump the justices in with candidates for other races.

But the mistake has national implications, too. Without the headings, tabulation machines couldn't read the ballots. So Bucher ordered teams of workers — supervised by herself, a county judge and a county commissioner — to hand copy votes onto good ballots. With more than 27,000 ballots streaming into the office, Bucher anticipates the copy frenzy to last through Election Day.

On a recent afternoon, hundreds of workers buzzed over their tedious labor deep inside an industrial park north of West Palm Beach. People watching the process closely say Bucher's method is sound and, so far, free of glitches or disputes over voter intent.
"It doesn't excuse the mistake, but the steps they are taking before the election are the right ones to help make this not a big deal," said Joshua A. Douglas, an election law professor at the University of Kentucky.

Nonetheless, everyone inside seemed on edge. The Obama volunteers huddled separately from the Romney volunteers. Clutching clipboards, they spoke frenetically and plucked cookies from a catered display for quick nourishment.
No one would be interviewed except Bucher, and only for three minutes: "Done with you," she said after several questions. "I'm busy."She blamed the Arizona printer, Runbeck, which could not be reached for comment despite a call.
"We're just trying to take care of the current problem," Bucher said. She wasn't sure if she would switch printers, but promised to install safeguards to prevent bad ballots from reaching voters.

[BainsBane]

1. OMG

It never stops there.

[brooklynite]

7. She's a Democrat...

[BainsBane]

14. So was Teresa LaPore

and incompetence is not limited to Republicans.

[RC]

2. Wouldn't it have been easier to just Hand Count them?

Of course it would. I propose jail time for whoever authorized this.

[Mika]

5. Floriduh election law now requires a digital ballot (EMachine or optically scanned).

The paper ballot (a bubble sheet) has to be scanned into an optical reader to become the official vote, once that happens the paper ballott CAN NOT be recounted, as it isn't the official record.

[Control-Z]

3. Wow! I don't know what to even think of this. n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

4. How can that possibly be legal? Why wouldn't they just hand count the machine

un-readable ballots? I sure wouldn't want anybody copying my voting!

[Mika]

6. Only the digital record of the ballot can be counted now in Floriduh. n/t

[DLnyc]

9. Yes, very bizarre story!

How could it not be easier to just count the damn votes. Copy the ballots so a machine can count them? What is so fricking difficult about just counting the damn votes?!?!?

[struggle4progress]

11. No shit

[and-justice-for-all]

8. That should be illegal and a federal crime..nt

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Arizona Printer? ARIZONA printer!

Why is Florida sending their business to an Arizona printer? They could save freight costs by having it done closer to home.

[RC]

12. The Arizona printer has to be a brother in law or some such to somebody in Florida

That's why.

[Mika]

13. I think that Katherine Harris used a printer from AZ to make the defective punch cards in 2000. n/t