Glitch Causes Voting Problems (Orange County FL)

[struggle4progress]

Source: Associated Press

Many were told they were ineligible to vote
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- The Orange County Supervisor of Elections office says about 1,245 residents should not have received letters stating they could not vote this November. Officials said a computer glitch was behind the .. letters, which ... were supposed to confirm voter registration information. A supervisor .. said a corrected version .. would be mailed.

Read more: http://www.970wfla.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=124415&article=4400864

[truthisfreedom]

1. Good.

One small crisis averted.

[struggle4progress]

2. Fewer early voting sites in Palm Beach County

Reported by: Sun-Sentinel
Last Update: 10/13 7:44 pm

PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL -- More voters, fewer options. Despite adding an early voting site recently, Palm Beach County will have fewer early voting sites than it did for the fall 2006 election, and one fewer than it had for the January primary. The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office plans to open 11 early voting sites between Oct. 20 and Nov. 2. The county had 15 sites during the 2006 general election ...

http://www.wptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=494cdf94-ff8f-4441-be3a-725fb8dc61e0

[timtom]

5. Speaking of early voting:

Randi is all over this, advising people (esp here in s. Florida) to vote early. Wasn't she against that last general election?

[Hekate]

3. Agh. It's not a glitch if a computer did it. It's a deliberate fubar, courtesy of Diebold or Sequoia

Not arguing with you -- it was the article's choice of words, using a Repub frame.

Hekate

[4lbs]

4. Glitch? Yeah, a human glitch.

Courtesy of Floridian Republicans.

[riona]

6. From the local news reports, I'm left with the impression that,

for several reasons, we will have a messy election. The felon issue doesn't seem to be resolved. Officials may not have the time to check the huge number of new voter applications. There will be strict ID checks at the polls. Info must be up to date and match or else. More than one TV reporter has claimed that some voter registration group employees are submitting duplicate or false registrations. Supposedly, the workers are paid by the application.

[nashville_brook]

7. here's a decent primer on the voter registration controversy:

the following Fact List is copyright-free, as reported by Brad Friedman via Huffington Post:



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-friedman/13-million-reasons-for-th_b_134025.html

The following facts need to be read by everybody (apparently), even those who believe they are progressives, yet have fallen for the GOP's Dixie-Chicking of ACORN...

Fact: ACORN has implemented the most sophisticated quality-control system in the voter engagement field but in almost every state we are required to turn in ALL completed applications, even the ones we know to be problematic.

Fact: ACORN flags in writing incomplete, problem, or suspicious cards when we turn them in,. Unfortunately, some of these same officials then come back weeks or months later and accuse us of deliberately turning in phony cards. In many cases, we can actually prove that these are the same cards we called to their attention.

Fact: Our canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card. ACORN has a zero-tolerance policy for deliberately falsifying registrations, and in the cases where our internal quality controls have identified this happening we have fired the workers involved and turned them in to election officials and law-enforcement.

Fact: No criminal charges related to voter registration have ever been brought against ACORN or partner organizations. Convictions against individual former ACORN workers have been accomplished with our full cooperation, using the evidence obtained through our quality control and verification processes - evidence which in most cases WE called to the attention of authorities

Fact: Most election officials have recognized ACORN's good work and praised our quality control systems. Even in the cities where election officials have complained about ACORN, the applications in question represent less than 1% of the thousands and thousands of registrations ACORN has collected.

Fact: Our accusers not only fail to provide any evidence, they fail to suggest a motive: there is virtually no chance anyone would be able to vote fraudulently, so there is no reason to deliberately submit phony registrations. ACORN is committed to ensuring that the greatest possible numbers of people are registered

ACORN will not be intimidated, we will not be provoked, and in this important moment in history we will not allow anyone to distract us from these vital efforts to empower our constituencies and our communities to speak for themselves.

Thank you, ACORN, for both the tireless work in support of democracy, and for not being intimidated by those who hate it, and who realize that if it exists, they cannot win elections.

[ngant17]

8. Orlando typically goes Democrat

so you have to wonder if there was some programming shenanigans going on in the electronic databases somewhere.