Voting Machine Audit in Sarasota "Indefinitely" Cancelled by FL Secretary of State

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061116/BREAKING10/61116011&start=1

November 16. 2006 1:56PM
Voting machine audit cancelled

By DOUG SWORD
[e-mail]

The Secretary of State cancelled “indefinitely” its audit of voting machines in Sarasota County.

The audit was expected to begin today, but Republican Vern Buchanan, who leads Democrat Christine Jennings by 401 votes, has yet to hire a voting machine expert. Circuit Court Judge Deno Economou ordered Buchanan to hire an expert by 5 p.m. Monday.

“It’s got to be the easiest thing in America to find an expert...” said Jennings’ attorney Kendall Coffey.

Coffey complained that Secretary of State Sue Cobb’s office had given Buchanan a “veto” over starting the state division of elections’ audit by ruling that experts from both camps had to be present during testing.

Buchanan’s attorney Hayden Dempsey said that Republicans aren’t trying to delay the audit. He said the state audit originally was set to begin Wednesday, but had been put off by a day after Jennings’ legal team won a temporary injunction. Their argument: that experts from both camps should monitor the audit.

Dempsey said he expects that Jennings will file a lawsuit Monday contesting the election. That would move the case to Tallahassee. The court would then oversee how the campaigns audit and test the machines, he said.

[texpatriot2004]

1. We'll see about that nm

[longship]

2. Smarmy monsters!!!

Give 'em Hell, Christine!!!

[JeremyWestenn]

4. Hmmm...

Looks to be interesting. Probably won't garner any national attention though.

- Jeremy

[John Q. Citizen]

18. It already has. n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. What a bunch of crap

If Buchanan couldn't find an 'expert' in time, that's her problem.

Remember when Katherine Harris could wait 5 more minutes for Palm Beach Country to finish recounting the votes? Despite the fact that the FL Supreme Court ruled that she could wait until the start of regular business hours the next morning.

[gratuitous]

5. "Republicans aren't trying to delay the audit"

Who are you going to believe, asked Hayden Dempsey, Me or your lying eyes? We're not trying to delay things, we just want to do an audit when the Democrats aren't watching. Then we'll certify Buchanan as the winner, all nice and legal. But if the Democrats are going to insist on observing the audit, then it will have to be postponed indefinitely. Or until they all fall asleep.

Goddammit Florida; get your act together and quit electing these Republican crooks to office, could you please?

[mhatrw]

10. Not trying to delay the audit, but to Delay the audit.

The difference is subtle.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Just spoke to the SOS office in FL

The audit of the machines and voting procedure is what is being delayed, not the recounting of the votes.

The recount of the votes is proceeding according to the scedule set out in the state's election laws.

[flpoljunkie]

13. That is exactly right and what the original post indicated.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. My bad

I didn't know the audit was different and seperate from the recount.

[papau]

16. There is no "recount" - just re-adding the machine totals - some"recount"-eh? n/t

:-(

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. Well trying to count vapor votes

is a bit difficult.

[133724]

24. VAPOR VOTES

I love it..........

[formercia]

25. and the phantom registered Republicans

from their bogus voting drives.

[Nimrod2005]

7. Which Monday is that, past Monday or upcoming Monday the 20th?

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

8. All they can really do is revote

And I don't see that happening.

[grizmaster]

9. With Coffey on the case

they might just get a revote. The guy is a brilliant lawyer.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

11. That would be fabulous and a good demonstration of how bad DRE's are

We absolutely have to get to some system in place that provides a paper audit trail at the precinct level.

I like the idea of a #2 pencil and optical scanners. That way you have the scan card for a paper trail and the quick counting of the computers. If there is any question, you can use the card to manually count votes.

[w4rma]

12. I am in full agreement with you, ItsTheMediaStupid. (nt)

[kay1864]

14. Heh. Did you see "Hacking Democracy"?

The totals coming out of optical-scanning machines were changed--WITHOUT touching the machines at all.

The trick was the memory card that (according to Diebold) "only tabulates the votes", yet it contained a tiny program that could manipulate the vote counts.

Yeah, you could manually recount the thousands of sheets, but when the "paper trail" printout coming out of the machine matches the final totals, no one's the wiser. Except the hacker who changed the memory card, of course.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

17. You have to retain the input cards

These totals for the individual races would have to match the matchine totals or nothing is official.

There has to be an audit trail to the precinct level or there is the chance of cheating, just like you said. If you have a record at the precinct level you can cross check for any changes to the totals, whether they take place on memory cards or at the county tabulator.

BOE officials will balk at the extra work, but &*(^% them.

[John Q. Citizen]

20. very true, but mandatory random audits of the paper ballots would catch that.

[progressoid]

21. "...and test the machines"

Now, that's a good thing.

[Wilms]

22. K&R n/t

[Patsy Stone]

23. This is very good.

On Tuesday, Jennings won her case to secure the machines and have each side hire voting machine experts. This audit is expected to begin next week when Buchanan gets his expert, which he didn't know he'd need, because he didn't know she'd ask for it.

He's not delaying to delay, he was just caught off guard. The fact that the audit is delayed because Jennings won her case and there will be more expert testimony forthcoming about the sorry state of the machines is a situation which can only help the cause for free and fair elections.

[flpoljunkie]

26. Secretary of State Sue Cobb now says both sides will participate in audit or neither.

During a Circuit Court hearing, Judge Deno Economou told Buchanan's attorney, Hayden Dempsey, to choose an expert by 5 p.m. Monday to work with Jennings and Sue Cobb, the secretary of state, on a separate audit of voting machines aimed at determining whether there is anything irregular about some 18,000 no-votes recorded in the congressional race in the county. Cobb's office has said both sides will participate or neither; it will do the audit alone if Buchanan provides no expert.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/11/17/State/Congressional_candida.shtml

[peekaloo]

27. Jennings is tough and tenacious.

:patriot:

Revote?