It was just another human error - Lee Co, FL

[DoYouEverWonder]

Early I posted a thread in regards to Lee County, FL losing 743 votes between Nov 2 and Nov 15th, when the election was certified. So I called the Lee County, Supervisor of Elections and this is what she told me.

Apparently, there were two local elections that triggered a recount but only in a few precincts. During the recount they found that someone had counted a batch of votes twice during the initial tabulation. According to the SOE, this was just one of those human errors. She knew that it would be human error, because her touch screen systems performed perfectly. She was very glad though that they didn't have to recount the whole county because the items that needed to be recounted, only effected a small portion of the precincts.

So it seems to me, that the only way anyone can find an error is if the election results were close enough to trigger a recount. Too bad, it doesn't seem to phase these folks that if you are finding mistakes in just a small sampling, then you probably have other mistakes in other precincts as well?

Maybe things didn't work so perfectly after all?


UNOFFICIAL ELECTION NIGHT RETURNS - Posted Nov 3rd

Lee County
Percent reported 87.60%

Bush / 114,153
Kerry / 76,874
Total / 191,027


1st SET OF UNOFFICIAL RETURNS - Downloaded on Nov 10th

Percent reported 100.00%

Bush / 144,414
Kerry / 94,365
Total / 238,779


Final Official Results - Posted 11/14/04

Percent reported 100.00%

Bush / 144,176
Kerry / 93,860
Total / 238,036


Bush / -238
Kerry / -505
Total / -743

[sled]

1. Lee & Collier County - Where's the beef?

You might take note that, Kerry over-performed in both Lee, & Collier Counties, while Jr. under-performed, in each. So much for that massive "moral values" turnout...a sham...the Dems did very well...


Registration Info - Lee County
http://www.leeelections.com/totalvot.htm

General Election - Lee County
http://www.leeelections.com/results/summary.htm

Registration Info - Collier County
http://www.colliervotes.com/

General Election - Collier County
http://www.colliervotes.com/results.asp?dateid=28&electionid=9

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. The beef is that there are no checks and balances worth a damn

in these touch screen systems. It seems every time someone has to recount the votes, no matter what the reason, they can never get the same numbers twice. So if problems are cropping up in every place they are forced to recount, it makes you wonder what else is wrong with the rest of the data.

[skids]

3. Bev would probably do good things with this information.

We don't have a DU handler for Bev yet, someone on her good side, please volunteer:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=201&topic_id=4549&mesg_id=7040&page=

(P.S. Please noone use this post for post-flamewar sucker punches)

[noclonyofthechimp]

4. I live in Lee County Florida. If you need me to email this info to

Bev, I will.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Please do

If you think someone can use this tidbit, please pass it along.

[noclonyofthechimp]

7. Consider it done!

[meganmonkey]

6. Our democracy is worth taking the time to recount every damn vote

and this is yet another example of why we should!!!!

:bounce:

[KatieB]

8. Craven County, NC used the same machines and had the same "glitch"

Duh----they were ES&S Ivotronics - in both counties. (I confirmed using verifiedvoting.org)

http://www.newbernsj.com/PrintIt.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=18297&Section=Local

Election problems due to a software glitch
November 05, 2004
Sue Book
Sun Journal

A systems software glitch in Craven County's electronic voting equipment is being blamed for a vote miscount that, when corrected, changed the outcome of at least one race in Tuesday's election.

Then, in the rush to make right the miscalculation that swelled the number of votes for president here by 11,283 more votes than the total number cast, a human mistake further delayed accurate totals for the 40,534 who voted.

The glitch occurred Tuesday night as absentee ballot totals for one-stop early voting at three Craven County locations and ballots mailed-in were being entered, said Tiffiney Miller, Craven County Board of Elections director.

The Elections Systems and Software equipment had downloaded voting information from nine of the county's 26 precincts and as the absentee ballots were added, the precinct totals were added a second time. Precincts affected were Havelock East, Havelock West, River Bend, Cove City, Ernul, Fort Totten, Grover C. Fields, Glenburnie and West New Bern.

An override, like those occurring when one attempts to save a computer file that already exists, is supposed to prevent double counting, but did not function correctly, Miller said.
<snip>

[sled]

10. You bet

Here, too, in Collier. And nationwide. My first thought, when I read this in the Naples News on Nov. 4 was, these "glitches" were uploaded, to the central tabulators, the night of the selection. They explained it away, but I'm still not buying it.

I smelled a rat, the night of the selection, when Collier was slow to report...& I still smell that same rat... Slow to report, when it's all computerized? Should be tabulated, correctly, at the speed of light, not hours later. The crap's no more secure, than an online poll, & no more reliable.

Software glitch blamed for delay in election results
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_3303306,00.html

[KatieB]

11. Holly smokes - and more tabulating problems in INdiana and CA

You can tell the election officials are clueless in these stories. Common element is that it happens when they are tabulating. Difference is what they attribute the problem to. In all these cases, it's led to a dramatic overvote.

Miami-Dade Florida - May 2004 - ES&S I-Votronics referenced from California where machines have trouble compiling data

IN - March 2004 - IVotronics - ES&S tried to sneak in uncertified software which could not properly tabulate the votes

But the real "strength of the machines seems to be their ability not to count votes (which they've admitted to) and to flip a vote from that candidate voted for to another candidate (E.g. Kerry to Bush).
http://www.votersunite.org/info/ES&Sinthenews.pdf

[KatieB]

9. Typically ES&S IVotronics are known for seriously undercounting

THe repeat stories of lost votes are predominant on this sight which tracks "irregularities":
Just search the PDF with the word "Ivotronic" - Even California wouldn't use these machines!
http://www.votersunite.org/info/ES&Sinthenews.pdf