Touchscreen Vote Records Lost in Florida

[swag]

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0704/162231.html

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.

. . .

[hyphenate]

1. Good!

This "boo-boo" might show the world that the voting records in the State of Flrida are subject to hacking, disappearing, or in general, manipulation.

If nothing else comes out of it, perhaps a highly watched and supervised election in November should come out of it. We can only hope. Right now as it is, they're still trying to make that "felon" list their one-shot to keeping the election in Republican hands. Jeb Bush should be thrown out of office as quickly as his brother will be in January.

[billybob537]

2. OOOOOps! BUSH* wins again!!!

[Jack Rabbit]

3. With all the problems with BBV

With all the problems with BBV, I'm surprised no one mentioned this one. I'm a computer programmer, so of course it has crossed my mind.

In addition to the ease with which elections can be rigged with BBV, especially with no paper trail, one simple power outage could wipe out the most honest election.

Especially if there's no paper trail.

[WiccanHighPriest]

16. Black Box Voting?

Is anyone familiar with this web site?

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

[Jack Rabbit]

20. Welcome to DU

Bev Harris posts frequently here and uses this site to get ideas.

[AndyTiedye]

18. Not To Mention a VIRUS

Diebold voting machines run WINDOWS CE.
Diebold tabulators (that collect votes from voting machines) run WINDOWS XP or 2000.

There are new security alerts and viruses against Windows every week.

[Kelvin Mace]

4. I have come to the firm conclusion

that only a serious train wreck will wake these people up. By then, it will be too late.

[MoonRiver]

30. Me too.

That's why I can hardly bear to post here anymore. This country has gone so far down the low road that I am terrified for our future. The wonderful activism, especially symbolized in my mind by DU and Air America, is very late in coming. I pray we still have time to save the situation but I am extremely weary, and worried.

[prodigal_green]

5. why aren't Floridians rioting in the streets?

Their most basic right has been taken away or tampered with time and again. This is unpardonable. Unless Florida has plans to secede from the rest of the country, we (the United States) need their votes--even if they vote for the wrong person.

Not blaming the victims here--I just don't understand what has happened to the electorate in this country.

[tlcandie]

8. Because another * is operating this state just like in the WH

and they (the *) do NOT listen to protestors because they are only a focus group.

[Jack Rabbit]

10. The reasons may be a little more primative that that

Jeb has ways of dealing with peasants with pitchforks.

[AndyTiedye]

19. Florida is Not a First Amendment Zone

[hatrack]

6. (Insert Gomer Pyle voice here):

"Surprise, surprise, surprise!!!"

[demnan]

7. How convenient

n/t

[7th_Sephiroth]

9. ugh, i hate Jebco

but what can i do to stop them?

[ecoalex]

11. Florida is on track to deliver for shrub

It seems jeb will deliver again if they stick with the electronic machines. If they are serious about an accurate election Nov 2 they need paper ballots.I suggest absentee ballots, a paper trail,guaranteed, and an accurate recount.Electronic voting machines are another republican ruse.

[DeadHead67]

13. They need federal troops to move into Florida. . . .

. . .arrest Jeb, and carefully supervise the election!!! WHY ISN'T SOMEONE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THIS SHIT!!!!:grr:

[Manix]

12. ...the game is on...don't let them get away with it!

[madmom]

14. the repigs sure seem to have alot of trouble....

with records it seems with this level of incompetence some heads should have rolled long ago. If this were a business would these gaffes be aloud to stand?

[KeepItReal]

15. IMHO, Janet Reno's election was stolen, enabling Jeb to be "re-elected"

I *dare* someone to prove me wrong!!

Ooops! Primary records got "lost" in a "computer crash"? How convenient... A totally irrecoverable hard drive failure? No 3.5" floppy disks (or ZIP drive) handy to save the totals? No daily backup of election office data? No offsite backup of electronic voting records?

Check this out...

"In a televised concession speech, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno accepted loss in the botched Florida primaries after a week of election marred by voting miscounts.

Unofficial totals showed that McBride had 602,346 votes, or 44.38 percent; Reno had 597,552, or 44.03 percent.

Reno gained a net total of 3,400 votes in final counts released Tuesday by Miami-Dade, Broward and other counties, not enough to erase the 8,196-vote margin McBride held after last week's preliminary tally.

McBride, a first-time candidate, emerged from the primary as the top vote-getter, but the race was marred by ballot glitches that brought back memories of the 2000 presidential election. "

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/politics/main521685.shtml

[bluedog]

17. GOP Dirty Little Games!

Floridians Get Pre-Affiliated Voter Forms



When a group of new Americans left their naturalization ceremony in Jacksonville, Fla., last month, they were handed voter registration forms that had already been marked in ink for the Republican Party. NPR's Phillip Davis reports.

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3616703


note: this is the first I've heard about this....am in the process of writing Graham ans Nelson..this is not right...as it helps in the primaries for the senate seats..........raise hell about this!!!!every newspaper in Florida SHOULD have carried this story......

[AndyTiedye]

21. That Move Could Backfire on the Repubs

Suppose all those pissed-off new citizens actually start *voting*
and *running* in the Republican primaries. Might throw a bit of a monkey wrench.

Jebbie might suddenly have to fight for his own party's nominiation.

[matcom]

22. DID YOU TRY AND VOTE IN THEIR POLL?

maybe its just me but the "who would you trust to fight terrorism" poll doesn't work for me.

select Kerry, hit the vote button and get a popup asking the same question. i select Kerry again, hit the vote button and it asks me AGAIN??

ok. a story about voting and a poll to vote in and BOTH are fraudulent???

*scuse me*

:tinfoilhat:

[swag]

23. follow up with NYTimes story (love the quote in graph 4).

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

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 citizens 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 citizens 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.

"This shows that unless we do something now - or it may very well be too late - Florida is headed toward being the next Florida," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, a lawyer who is the chairwoman of the coalition.

. . .

[faithnotgreed]

28. thats so (not) funny. even florida is too close to being florida again

[Moderator]

24. Duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=712471

[BadGimp]

25. unreal

what more proof does anyone need to see how they are going to steal this election?

[MaraJade]

26. I really hate to say this, but

it appears as if the United States now needs an international body
of poll-watchers over here>

Don't laugh. I'm serious.

For this next presidental election, it might behoove certain areas,
cities or communities to petition the UN to send poll-watchers here.
The whole "black box voting" thing has bothered me for a long time,
but now, it's downright terrifying. These losses of votes and other
polling disasters that keep happening in certain places at certain times to certain groups of people are highly suspect. It is clear that some independent organization or body should be taking and recording exit information at the polls in order to provide some witness of what's going on.

:grr:

[Spiffarino]

29. At least one congresswoman agrees with you

Corrine Brown (D-Fla) said on the House floor that she believes the U.N. or another internationally recognized body should be invited in to monitor the 2004 elections. She was roundly criticized by Republicans, and her comments were stricken from the record. The good news is that all the Democrats voted against striking her comments.

http://www.house.gov/corrinebrown/press108/pr040702.htm


Edited for clarity

[klook]

27. Outrageous

Who is being fired over this? Who is being indicted over this? Anybody???

Here's USA Today coverage of the same story:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/2004-07-28-fla-votes_x.htm

Somebody call the Carter Center.