Lost Record of Vote in '02 Florida Race Raises '04 Concern (NYT)

[struggle4progress]

By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: July 28, 2004

IAMI, July 27 - Almost all the electronic records from the first widespread use of touch-screen voting in Miami-Dade County have been lost, stoking concerns that the machines are unreliable as the presidential election draws near.

The records disappeared after two computer system crashes last year, county elections officials said, leaving no audit trail for the 2002 gubernatorial primary. A citizen's group uncovered the loss this month after requesting all audit data from that election.

A county official said a new backup system would prevent electronic voting data from being lost in the future. But members of the citizen's group, the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, said the malfunction underscored the vulnerability of electronic voting records and wiped out data that might have shed light on what problems, if any, still existed with touch-screen machines here. The group supplied the results of its request to The New York Times.
<snip>

After the 2002 primary, between Democratic candidates Janet Reno and Bill McBride, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida conducted a study that found that 8 percent of votes, or 1,544, were lost on touch-screen machines in 31 precincts in Miami-Dade County. The group considered that rate of what it called "lost votes" unusually high.
<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/28/politics/campaign/28vote.final.html

[frank frankly]

1. great, nytimes, but shouldn't this be the headline?!!?!

BIG STORY. No records left! Electronic voting may have been sunk, once and for all. Hopefully...

[Hobarticus]

2. Vote has to COUNT to be lost...

Watch, 108% of the American people will turn up to vote.

[Odd Little Man]

3. The Three Rules of Computing:

#1 Always back-up

#2 Be sure to follow Rule #1

#3 If you haven't done Rules #1 or #2 don't call me

[dbt]

8. Hi, Odd Little Man!

Great post--and welcome to DU!

:toast:
dbt

[jburton]

4. Election Day is 99 days away

This was from the 2002 election? And just now getting out?

Thanks for the heads up, NYT.

:eyes:

[TrogL]

5. You've got to be fucking kidding

No off-site duplicate? No off-site tape backup? No paper trail?

[tkmorris]

6. Bullshit

The records were lost because they don't want anyone to see them. In fact, I would bet my South Florida house that they still exist. It's amazing what they expect us to swallow these days.

[Moderator]

7. Original discussion on this topic can be found here:

Since the New York Times link has emerged to replace the Drudge link, the thread below is now read-only.

Drudge: New Electronic Voting System in Florida: Flawed

DU Moderator

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. Mighty convenient, don't you think?

[dusty64]

10. "Lost", oh I'm

so sure thats what happened. Funny how that always happens.

[Kinkistyle]

11. Maybe its where Shrub's military records are.

The mysterious blackhole that seems to suck up all the Bush's incriminating records.

[PATRICK]

12. Utter impunity

Of course they have to, but expect this to be consistent. It has been so far most transparently. Something better than outrage or slow legal protests has to come along to stop this unending crime.

Jeb is an electoral gangster.

[tlcandie]

13. Ahhh the INFAMOUS system crash!!!!

Wasn't this the reason issued forth by this admin for NOT releasing something else very recently?

Give me a break! They really are crazy to think we are all such idiots! This was more like a MIHOP system crash!!!

EDIT: Maybe we should just start referring to the repugs as the HUGE BLACK HOLE where things go crazy and disappear from all rationality!