Broward considers dumping $17 million in touch voting machines

[phoebe]

fleshing out of the earlier story I just posted..

Less than two years after spending $17 million to replace Broward County's election system, county commissioners expressed growing apprehension Tuesday about electronic voting and decided to rethink what they had done.

Commissioners ordered their staff to explore retrofitting the new touch-screen voting machines to print copies of each ballot or ditching the machinery in favor of paper ballots read by optical scanners. They want the study completed in the next couple of months so they can make any changes before next year's presidential elections.

snip

Executives at Election Systems & Software, which manufactured Broward and Miami-Dade's voting machines, welcomed the studies. They told commissioners they were ready to show how their machinery can withstand tampering and does not have the problems cited in the national reports. Yet they added that no system is foolproof.

"It's not just the machine that builds security," said John Groh, senior vice president at ES&S. "It's an entire process. It's who is allowed to stand at the machine. It's how the machines are unloaded and secured at the polling places. It's a whole group of procedures that must be followed to ensure security."

Broward purchased 5,000 machines from ES&S as part of the $17.2 million deal in December 2001.

more
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-celect24sep24,0,1706541.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[phoebe]

1. this story is interesting too,,,Oliphant threatens to sue (Broward County)

Oliphant threatens to sue after Broward reduces elections budget


By Scott Wyman
Staff writer

September 24, 2003

Broward County Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant vowed to go court to ensure next year's elections run properly after county commissioners refused Tuesday to give her as much money as she said she needs to oversee the voting.

Oliphant wanted $14.7 million because of the higher cost of running elections with the new touch-screen voting machines. But commissioners set aside $9.6 million after they cut off negotiations with her in the midst of their final budget hearing.

snip

The $9.6 million elections budget represents more than a 50 percent increase over last year. The county also plans to buy 1,000 additional voting machines at a cost of $3.1 million.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cbudget24sep24,0,5730823,print.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[kimchi]

2. Good job, Broward.

Better to wake up later than never.

If anyone knows about voting problems, it would be Broward.

Yeah, Mr. Groh, "its an entire process", but that process is so much easier if you just have a damn piece of paper to verify the votes, you freak.

[Nottingham]

3. Good for Broward County!

We need a Paper trail!

[havocmom]

4. Takes a lot of courage for local pols to admit they were bamboozled

and for them to go public and cut their loses. I hope the people of that county are supportive of the decision to put the intergrity of the ballot ahead of personal image on the part of these folks!

Hey, is the tide turning so much on this issue that Diebold is getting really nasty and sending lawyers after everyone who has worked to get the truth out? Methinks they protest way too much!

[qb]

5. Broward County is doing a valuable service for the entire country.

This publicity will surely put the pressure on die-hard paperless touch screen promoters in other locations.

[Bushfire]

6. Sun Sentinal changes headline to:

Broward rethinks $17 million electronic voting system

with a different link:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pcoliphant24sep24,0,1755992.story?coll=sfla-news-palm

Phoebe's article actually has more info in it though for some reason near the end. Things that make you go hmmm :shrug: