FL Officials Hope To Keep Ghosts Of Elections Past At Bay

Florida's voting infrastructure became famous in the 2000 election when "hanging chads' became a household name. And problems keep popping up.

Can Florida voters be confident that their votes will be accounted for properly?

According to Secretary of State Kurt Browning, the answer is yes. He is confident that today's voting will go smoothly and there won't be anything more than 'normal election day' issues like voters showing up at the wrong polling place. That means no hanging chads and no undercounting as happened in a 2006 Congressional race.

Florida spent millions of dollars on touch screen machines only to have them scrapped last year because the machines lack a paper trail. This is the last election that 14 Florida counties will use the touch screen machines. They will be replaced by optical scanning machines in time for November's election.

Also last year, an anomaly in the state's voting database listed 16,000 people as living in the same apartment complex in Duluth, GA although the overwhelming majority had never lived there. The database was fixed by the vendor and Browning says no other similar problems have been reported.

Jerry Holland, the Supervisor of Elections for Duvall County (where Jacksonville, Florida's largest city sits,) says that his county just finished verifying 100,000 petitions and there was no problem using the voter registration database.

Ion Sancho, the Supervisor of Elections for Leon County (home to Florida's capital, Tallahassee,) says "the database is under-analyzed and was flawed in 2000 and 2004," referring to 20,000 African Americans who weren't allowed to vote because their names didn't appear on the official registration list. A report by The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found many voting anomalies with Florida's black voters including a rejection of 14.4% of votes cast by Florida's African Americans as compared to 1.6% rejection of nonblack voters.

Sancho says "campaigns need to end outside the ballot box and not be contaminated with partisan poison.... The only way to ensure a fair vote is to have a professional, non-partisan elections administration" and to codify the "right to vote in the Presidential election into the Constitution." Yes, you heard right, there is no constitutional right to vote in a Presidential election.

Two new laws were passed by the Florida legislature that might affect voter registration. The first law imposes high penalties and great liability on third party voter registration drives when laws are broken. The League of Women Voters sued saying that the law was too restrictive and would negatively impact minority voting rights. Local courts ruled the law unconstitutional, so the Florida legislature made changes. According to Secretary of State Browning, the plaintiffs and the defendants decided to send the law to the U.S. Department of Justice for pre-clearance, which id did last week. According to at least one civil rights group, the law is still restrictive and will decrease third party voter registration drives.

The other law has to do with identification requirements for voting. At the end of last year a federal judge ruled that the state can not require a person to show a driver's license or Social Security number when voting. The state appealed and argued last week in the 11th Circuit that it be allowed to require such identification. A decision has yet to be handed down.

Then there's the problem my 87 year old grandmother pointed out to me. She's a poll worker, has been for years. Problem is that she's not that good with machines. She found out at the training that there were new machines, which were explained in about 10 minutes. That wasn't enough for her, so she and three other of her fellow co-workers went to a special training to see how the machines work. My grandmother had to share a machine with someone else (4 students, 3 machines.) The class before her had 20 'students' being trained on 3 machines. She spent the weekend studying the instruction manual and hopes there will be someone to help out. Grandma's prediction: Chaos.

So the big questions for tomorrow's vote in Florida are has the state corrected its past problems? And will Florida's primary be fair? Is Grandma over-reacting? If you vote in Florida, how was your experience? Send an email to [e-mail].

Comments

[kennedy]

Obama kept saying over and over and over again that Florida is a beauty contest. Even today he was saying Florida is a beauty contest. And that the Florida vote doesn't count. My family lives in north Fla and they are ticked off at Obama. First he says no one should vote because it is only a beauty contest and then the "snob guy" runs commercials in Florida against the DNC rules. If Obama didn't want anyone to go to the polls, then why did he spend millions on commercials in Florida? Clinton and Edwards no commercials and no campaigning. Obama makes my family and friends sick. And we are so happy Obama was crushed tonight by the Florida voters. Who does this up start think he is? Obama needs to show some respect to the voters of Florida and Michigan. And to Senator Clinton.

SENATOR CLINTON WINS FLORIDA!!!!!

[A Meat Beetle]

Can Florida voters be sure their votes will be accounted for? Today, probably. In the general election? We shall see, we shall see.

[crabcake]

We Florida voters can be just as confident as the New Hampshire voters that our votes will be properly accounted for. Ha, Ha

[Dan909]

They can't, and neither can you. Why is it that this issue is only a hot topic when it's too late to do anything about it?

[Joeseo]

Why worry about Florida? All states are now under the influence of Diebold and American Corporate Fascism.

[coop]

I live in Florida and I voted. Let me just say I'm sick and tired of the whole Florida voting problems story. It was one place in Palm Beach County in 2000 and the problem was the design of that county's ballot. The only reason we had so much scutiny on us was because it was so VERY close and those ballots were the deciding factor.

We have no more problems than any other state and we use the same exact machines. If any other state had as much scrutiny as we did that night, people would be looking for conspiracies there too.

I am a Democrat and I know much more about this than anyone in the media or Bev Harris or anyone. There is nothing wrong here with the voting system.

All corrupt activity happened outside of the voting machine, from push polling, to Republicans trying to disenfranchise voters at the state level, to subtle threats to minority voters to Katherine Harris taking advantage of the situation etc...

In the actual polling place and at the collective County Departments of Elections, there just aren't these kinds of problems.

[OSUMercutio]

A problem with a Florida election? Impossible!

[naschkatze]

It appears John McCain, like Hillary Clinton, is willing to bend the agreed upon rules when things don't suit him. In Florida, as in California, the Republicans have decided that only Republicans can vote in their primary, but unaffiliated voters are going to the polls and being allowed to request Republican ballots. I am an independent myself and really think independents ought to be allowed to request one ballot or the other, but I also think both parties have the right and the ultimate say to restrict their voting as they see fit. (In Clinton's case she has agreed to boycott the Fla. & Mich. votes yet now wants them.) I think we independents should accept the parties' rules, and as a former US Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, told Pope Paul VI in regard to the US legalizing birth control, "You no playa the game, you no maka the rules". If we independents want to make rules, we need to formalize our huge numbers into a real party. BTW, I wonder if McCain and The Clintons will be going to court and how it all will work out.

[Wiredwilly]

I grew up in Florida and moved to another State specifically because of the corrupt elections. The Voting Machines are laughable and the new " Optical Scanners" are even more insidious. Florida Politicians will try ANYTHING rather than have simple verifiable paper trails. The streets are watched by secret cameras and the Police are arrogant, macho thugs who constantly abuse power and promote right-wing propaganda. All the petty criminals Castro kicked out of Cuba are in Florida and it shows. Florida is a banana Republic and anyone who trusts anything about the State is delusional. I don't believe the 9/11 Hi-jackers were in Florida because of the sun & palm trees. My suspicion is that they were there because of connections to the drug traffic. The use of Voting Machines is part of a larger effort to establish a Police State, complete with Mandatory ID Cards, cashless currency, and total control of the people through control of information. In Florida " fair election" is an oxymoron. Florida is an insult to the Founding Fathers and should be expelled from the Union.

[RuneNordsman2]

the machines are completely rigged--it is proven--but, the chain of custody is a nightmare

have a look at what is going on in NH--the stolen election is now being certified by a criminal recount--slit boxes, seals that come off like post it notes, felons responsible for memory cards...

watch and read

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/012808_criminal_enterprise.htm bev harris in NH http://prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/012908_recount_fraud.htm ALBERT HOWARD exposes fraud recount in NH http://prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/290108Questions.htm black box voting report on fraud in NH recount

[JimReed]

I'm from Florida and I am confident my vote will be counted. I live in a highly Republican area, and there is normally a zero minute wait to vote here. We mark ballots by drawing the line between the arrows and putting it in the machine. There is a paper trail at our polling location. Those other Democratic areas should follow our example of how to make voting fast and effecient and accurate.

There was only the slightest glitch this morning, the woman handed me the blue card, then she caught her mistake and switched me to the white card. At the next station, the friendly man told me I was the first one to use a ballot from the white stack.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

NO!!

I'm sure they're made by Bushie's ally Diebold... and it'll be the same fix as last time... right to the Supreme Court.

Too much scandal, good 'ol boy network and just plain lies in Floriduh!

[rwe]

as long as they keep the Florida supremes out then their votes will count . And if they want them to be relevant they will vote in the GOP

[Pdubya]

I'm from Florida.

very worried about the chain of custody on machine cards and paper trail back ups.