Election chief tries to restore faith in Dade voting system

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Wed, Jul. 14, 2004




MIAMI-DADE COUNTY


Election chief tries to restore faith in Dade voting system

Miami-Dade's election chief said voting equipment problems cited in her letter to the manufacturer won't affect fall elections.

BY CHARLES RABIN
[e-mail]


Despite her critical letter last month to the company that manufactures Miami-Dade's touch-screen voting equipment, County Election Supervisor Constance Kaplan on Tuesday defended the machines and said flaws found so far will not affect upcoming elections.
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Kaplan's comments came the same day that Secretary of State Glenda Hood announced that Florida has certified new software designed to fix another problem with the equipment: a glitch that causes the machine to show the wrong serial numbers when its batteries run low.
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Kaplan sought to reassure county commissioners about the equipment manufactured by Election Systems & Services, the target of criticism since the first public reports of the audit problem in May.

Miami-Dade, Broward and nine other counties use the equipment.

A Herald review of internal election department documents last week found references to other flaws that had not previously been made public.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/9146671.htm
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New Questions Arise About Touch-Screen Voting Machines

Matthew Haggman
Miami Daily Business Review
05-27-2004


For the second time in two weeks, an internal memo from a Miami-Dade County election official in Florida has exposed a new round of auditing flaws that have plagued the iVotronic touch-screen voting machines used in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

The memo also indicates that the problem had been brought to the attention of Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Constance A. Kaplan two months earlier than she had said she first had learned of it. Its disclosure has prompted charges that Kaplan violated state open records laws by failing to disclose the memo sooner.

The latest memo, dated Oct. 10, 2003, and addressed to Kaplan, said a review of the Oct. 7, 2003, mayoral and City Council primary election in Homestead, Fla., found that the iVotronic system's audit log failed to account for 162 ballots cast.

All of the votes, however, were accurately tabulated, according to the machines' manufacturer, Elections Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb.

According to the latest memo, the system's audit log did not recognize five of the touch-screen machines used in the Homestead election.
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http://www.law.com/jsp/printerfriendly.jsp?c=LawArticle&t=PrinterFriendlyArticle&cid=1085514658592

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Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan -- who earlier said the problem could not be corrected in time for the August election -- said her office is already working six-day weeks and will do ''everything it takes'' to fix it.

Kaplan said ES&S told her each of the county's 7,200 machines could be corrected with a 20-minute procedure.

If for some reason the software is not ready for the August election, Kaplan said it should be in place by the November presidential contest. If the new software is not certified in time for the Aug. 31 vote, the county has figured out a way around the problem by attaching a laptop to download the information.

''We should know by the week's end,'' Kaplan said.

A local watchdog group says it's still skeptical. Lida Rodriguez-Taseff of the Miami-Dade Voting Reform Coalition said the state can certify the system, but until it's used during a real election, she won't trust it.

''They blessed the system to turn it on on the morning of the vote , and it didn't work. They blessed this audit system, and it didn't work,'' said Rodriguez-Taseff. ``Just because the state blesses it doesn't mean it will work.''
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http://groups.msn.com/FloridaElectionActivist/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=237

[rooboy]

1. Who wants to bet...

that by the end of the election, the ES&S machines in Florida will have declared Chuck Hagel the winner?

[Wabbajack]

2. I know her

Connie Kaplan, her kid went to my school, she was friends with my mom.