Electronic Records of Some Florida Elections Wiped Out in Computer Crash,

[Cannikin]

MIAMI (AP) - A computer crash erased detailed records from Miami-Dade County's first widespread use of touchscreen voting machines, raising again the specter of elections troubles in Florida, where the new technology was supposed to put an end to such problems.
The crashes occurred in May and November of 2003, erasing information from the September 2002 gubernatorial primaries and other elections, elections officials said Tuesday.

The malfunction was made public after the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, a citizen's group, requested all data from the 2002 gubernatorial primary between Democratic candidates Janet Reno and Bill McBride.

In December, officials began backing up the data daily, to help avoid similar data wipeouts in the future, said Seth Kaplan, spokesman for the county's elections supervisor, Constance Kaplan.

continued:
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBMO0FC7XD.html

[bklyncowgirl]

1. I am SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell you!

I think we need UN observers in Florida to insure a free election the way they do with other banana republics.

Why aren't Jeb Bush and his cronies in jail yet?

[porphyrian]

8. Jeb! personifies Bush teflon. - n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Gee, I never saw that coming.

It's not like Florida requires special computer safeguards because of its lightning storms. Why use a backup system when prayer works for most circumstances?

[LTR]

3. Sounds like it works perfectly

Completely up to Florida standards.

Jeb should be so proud.

[Oggy]

4. Is this for real?

You would think the very basic requirement for backups of Election results/machines would be the same as required for businesses financial records. The Fed insists for example that backups of banking data are taken regularly and kept for a minimum of 6 years. If you don't ad hear to this as a Bank you loose your license to trade.

This is below shoddy IT, it is as if the IT people looking after the systems know nothing and test nothing and have no industry standard procedures.

[Citizen Daryl]

5. We are now in the era of "Faith-Based Voting" n/t

[southernleftylady]

6. i dont think even jeb bush would try anything this elections...

well if they have one single prain cell they shouldnt... we are prepared for them this time arround... we wont take it lying down!

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. They're not afraid of getting caught.

They get caught all the time and they have an incredible damage-control back-up. Here are their options:

1) They use the media outlets to discredit the whistleblowers.

2) They own the local courts, so any civil case will be dismissed before it goes any where.

3) Or they give a lame explanation for the "mistake" and the public just never questions it.

[Ready4Change]

11. They weren't punished for 2000, so why SHOULD they stop?

Who in Florida was fired for the 2000 debacle?

I don't recall any firings. I do recall a promotion or two.

[Scagbearer]

12. I agree

[dorktv]

19. They let us keep our guns......

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

7. You can't tell me...

... that a $125 or less Ditto tape backup system, hooked up to a printer port couldn't have saved them from this "embarassment".

[cthrumatrix]

13. that's only if you want facts..... rethugs dislike voting facts

[Mr.Green93]

10. why were they stored on a hard drive?

[salvorhardin]

14. Hard drives weren't the problem

however they should have been using at least a level 5 RAID along with at the minimum daily backups.

[shraby]

15. The data could also have been

burned to cd's. What Florida is doing is criminal.

[cthrumatrix]

16. why is there not an investigation...?

[Walt Starr]

17. Daily backups are not good enough

Believe me, DR is something I am intimately familiar with.

real time replication to an offsite facility is the ONLY means of protecting oneself from data loss, and even then, you can still lose a few minutes worth of data.

[Cannikin]

18. kick

[Gin]

20. No way...these machines are fool proof. (sure)

g

[Orangepeel]

21. this bodes badly for stability in the future, but it isn't a coverup

The 2002 gubernatorial primary was very close -- McBride won by about 5,600 votes, but, unlike in 2000, all the votes that existed were counted. Reno asked for a recount and got a recount of as many counties as she wanted. Again, unlike in 2000, nobody tried to stop the counting of the votes.

There were additional problems at the polls, with more than one in South Florida opening late. Reno undoubtedly lost votes because of that (not 5,000, in my opinion, but that's not something we can know). But those were potential votes that were never cast. A travesty, yes, but not affected by a data loss because there was no data.

This is a technical glitch that clearly shows why we need a paper trail, but it is not a coverup.