Sparks fly, talks snag on recount rule

[DoYouEverWonder]

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

TALLAHASSEE ? Opponents of touch-screen voting and state officials are in "parallel worlds" regarding how to conduct a manual recount on the ATM-style machines that more than half the state's voters use.

Civil liberties and union lawyers met Tuesday with Secretary of State Glenda Hood's general counsel and top elections officials in a somewhat heated hour-long exchange to discuss a new recount rule, ordered by an administrative law judge in August.

The judge had thrown out Hood's rule that would have exempted the touch-screen counties, including Palm Beach and Martin, from performing a manual recount in tight elections.

Alma Gonzalez, an attorney for the union representing government workers, offered state officials a list of a dozen items she said are necessary to assess the integrity of the November election, but failed to specifically include a mechanism for how to assess "voter intent," the integral element of a manual recount.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2004/10/13/a6a_recount_1013.html


Get ready folks. Here we go again.

[cthrumatrix]

1. shit meet fan .... they knew this was an issue... we have been screaming

about "lack of recount" for years with e-voting.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. But all the repugs and freepers assured us that these systems

were flawless.

Let's watch them run to court as soon as they start losing. Then they are going to be screaming and crying about the unreliable equipment and the election laws that are so ambiguous. They had four years to get it right, but instead they chose to make it worse, despite all of our pleas and warnings.

If this election falls apart, blame a repug.

[soup]

3. Thanks for this.

Unfortunately, I've been having problems getting the Palm Beach Post site to open, :-( (mozilla?) but I'm searching other articles to read on the subject.

-----

State law requires a manual recount of overvotes and undervotes in very tight elections.

Almost 1/2 of us will vote on Katherine Harris' touchscreens.

There is still no rule or law to cover those touchscreens.

I was screaming last February when they slid out a 'new rule' that touchscreens would be exempt from state law requiring manual recounts, since there was nothing to recount.

The guy who set the new rule (forget his name - Kaplan? - something like that) suddenly quit to spend more time with his family, and some jebbette took over for him. Pretty sure she resigned, too. Vaguely remembering some question about a connection with the jebmachine and the company she went to work for.

Shifting responsibility, playing games, delays, fights in court, and here we are, nothing resolved and 20 days away from FUBAR 2004.

Please, please - don't let it come down to FL again. Dammit. This makes me furious.

[sventvkg]

4. Obviously it's goingto come down to FL again a be constested.

A Bush is in power there....There WILL Be lying cheating and Illigal actions on their part and this election will end up in the courts again but this time the Dems will fight HARD. This is a sad sad time in our country. Get ready because Nov. 2nd is just the beginning.

[tlcandie]

5. Don't forget Colorado's electoral college voting

issue! Another court case in the works n/m the outcome most likely! So, this means W will be staying in the WH at least until January?

[w4rma]

6. The fix is in in Florida. Vote, but don't expect Florida to go Kerry. (nt)

[missile_bender]

7. Election and voter chaos favors the GOP

whom I like to call the Borg ("Your votes will be assimilated"). Anyway, the point is that the more confusion and chaos ensues, the better the Borg can game the system. They again will effectively paint the Dems as anti-democratic and anti-military, and unless the Dems are ready to fight with all their might the Borg will convince the country they are right. And if for some reason some states can't report a final outcome, the Supreme Court will say the incumbent must stay in.