Undervoting Added to List Of Florida's Election Woes

[Judi Lynn]

Published Thursday, July 22, 2004

Undervoting Added to List Of Florida's Election Woes

By TAMARA LUSH
St. Petersburg Times

TAMPA -- Florida elections officials knew before they bought the first touch screen machine that the devices had a history of recording undervotes at a higher rate than optical scan machines.

But they bought them anyway, partly because they don't see undervotes as a problem.

Yet undervotes, when people go to the polls and cast no vote in a race, have become the latest controversy surrounding Florida's troubled elections process.

Democratic U.S. Sen Bill Nelson this week called for an independent audit of touch-screen machines because of the high rate of undervotes in the March presidential primary.
(snip/...)

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040722/NEWS/407220428/1004

[Cicero]

1. I typically undervote...

In many elections, for a number of races, I don't vote for anyone, either because I don't know anything about the candidates (usually in the case of judgeships) or because I can't stand either choice.

Now, if the problem is one of someone using a touchscreen to vote, and that vote is never recorded, now that's a different kettle of fish.

That's why I've always advocated that touchscreen systems should only be used to print a ballot, which can then be visually verified by the voter before being placed in the ballot box.

Later,

[nodictators]

3. Overvotes and Undervotes usually refers to the top races only

It is well-known that voters often skip races down the ballot.

However, when many voters skip the top race, say a presidential or gubernatorial race, it looks suspicous to most people, except journalists.

In the 2003 California gubernatorial recall race, more than 11% of the voters in Los Angeles County did not cast a vote for the replacement governor. In the 2000 presidential race, LA County had 2.7% of the presidential ballots uncounted, a rate slightly more that the national average for the Votomatic punchcard machines they used then.

Schwarzenegger carried normally-Democratic LA county by a margin smaller than the number of uncounted ballots, 215,000. No journalist has ever questioned the result.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Maybe they should add a line for 'none of the above'

I bet 'none of the above' would win the majority of votes in many races.

[SoCalDem]

4. "None of the Above" is the answer..

It's simple.. It's a no-brainer.. Every race MUST have a vote.. "None of the Above" IS a vote ...That solves the problem..

The whole idea that someone would get up early,take a day off or whatever...drive to a polling station.... stand in line... and then NOT VOTE?? How ridiculous :crazy: