July 9, 2008
PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Third Try for Voting System in Florida Could be the Charm...or Not
By David M. Kinchen
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
A man walks into a voting booth in Florida.... Sounds like the opening line of a joke and -- considering the experience of voting in the Sunshine State -- it could a cosmic joke as the hapless state tries yet another voting system.
After all, this is the state that spawned a very recent made-for-HBO movie, "Recount," about the state's notorious voting snafu in the 2000 Presidential election. It's a good movie, starring Kevin Spacey and Laura Dern. Remember the hanging chads and butterfly ballots that had elderly Jews voting for Pat Buchanan?
So it was with trepidation that I listened to a cable news account of Florida's latest attempt to get right what most states -- including West Virginia -- have had no difficulty doing: Counting the votes. I could tell by the tone of his voice that the host of the cable show, Shepherd Smith, expressed doubt that the third time would be the charm for the joker state.
For more than half of Florida's voters, including residents of the state's five largest counties, Election Day in November will mean choosing a President using a third new voting system in as many presidential elections. In 2000 it was those notorious punch cards and tricky ballots; in 2004 it was ATM-style touch-screen machines. In 2008 Floridians will have the optical-scan ballot. What's next, paper ballots, counted by hand?
According to a July 3 article in Time magazine (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0, 8599,1820073,00.html) "In February 2007, less than a month into his governorship, Charlie Crist announced a proposal to eliminate all touch-screen machines in Florida, including the ones Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Pinellas and 10 other smaller counties spent millions of dollars on them after the 2000 election (in many cases, the counties still had millions left to pay off). The trouble: the machines did not produce a paper trail, a fact that critics pounced upon. Furthermore, a botched Sarasota County congressional election in November 2006 produced more than 18,000 "undervotes" (or nonvotes) using the machines in a race in which the contenders were just 400 votes apart. It was time to change methods. Again."
The Time story says that with the new system, "voters will receive ballots at polling places and use a pen to color in a bubble of their choice or connect a line between two arrows. They then submit the ballot to a poll worker who will run it through a scanning machine. Although the actual ballot is considered the voter's "receipt" — a term the governor used while touting the system last year — voters walk away with nothing. Votes are still tabulated electronically. The ballots are used as a backup for auditing and recount purposes."
Sounds too high-tech to me, given the inability of Floridians to navigate previous tricky voting procedures.
The Time story reports that Florida "has had a fits-and-starts rollout of the new system. A tiny percentage of voters in large counties like Palm Beach and Hillsborough have already tried their hand at optical-scan ballots in small municipal elections. If it is any indication, Palm Beach's first experience was not comforting. The center of the 2000 presidential election debacle, the county held its first test with optical-scan ballots on June 24 in a one-race municipal election. It took three hours to produce results for a little more than 4,000 votes. Two of the machines that scan the ballots broke down and were quickly replaced. Worse yet, another 697 uncounted votes surfaced three days later after an audit was conducted. (The state government has blamed the county for the problems, saying local election officials were not familiar enough with the new system to make it work efficiently.)"
Once again I'm reminded of the statement by the late, great George Carlin that Americans are born with a front-row seat to the freak show of life. Floridians are probably born with a seat right on the stage.
Again, from Time magazine:
"Election supervisors switching to optical-scan ballots are holding their breath. Large counties including Miami-Dade, Broward and Pinellas will have their first big test on Aug. 26, during the primaries for local, state and federal offices. The areas represent more than half of Florida's registered voters.
"But it's the November presidential election that's causing a lot of stress. Some counties predict turnout to surpass 80%. Apart from the presidency, the ballot will include races for local judges; constitutional officers and city and county commissioners; state and U.S. Senators and representatives; and as many as 10 constitutional amendments. Voting with a paper ballot takes longer than with a touch-screen machine, and it may be unwieldy for poll workers to handle so much paper while dealing with a new system. Additionally, five counties offer multilanguage ballots."
The fear in Florida, justified by past experience, is that long lines caused by long ballots and the new voting system, will result in additional snafus on election day, Nov. 4.
To avoid problems, some of the larger counties -- including the largest, Miami-Dade -- will be promoting early voting and absentee ballots at least three weeks before the August and November elections. Miami-Dade County's supervisor of elections, Lester Sola, said about 30% of registered voters cast their votes early in the 2004 presidential election. "We expect long lines," he said. "We want to maximize these resources."
My response: "Good luck!"
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PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Third Try for Voting System in Florida Could be the Charm...or Not
By David M. Kinchen
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
A man walks into a voting booth in Florida.... Sounds like the opening line of a joke and -- considering the experience of voting in the Sunshine State -- it could a cosmic joke as the hapless state tries yet another voting system.
After all, this is the state that spawned a very recent made-for-HBO movie, "Recount," about the state's notorious voting snafu in the 2000 Presidential election. It's a good movie, starring Kevin Spacey and Laura Dern. Remember the hanging chads and butterfly ballots that had elderly Jews voting for Pat Buchanan?
So it was with trepidation that I listened to a cable news account of Florida's latest attempt to get right what most states -- including West Virginia -- have had no difficulty doing: Counting the votes. I could tell by the tone of his voice that the host of the cable show, Shepherd Smith, expressed doubt that the third time would be the charm for the joker state.
For more than half of Florida's voters, including residents of the state's five largest counties, Election Day in November will mean choosing a President using a third new voting system in as many presidential elections. In 2000 it was those notorious punch cards and tricky ballots; in 2004 it was ATM-style touch-screen machines. In 2008 Floridians will have the optical-scan ballot. What's next, paper ballots, counted by hand?
According to a July 3 article in Time magazine (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0, 8599,1820073,00.html) "In February 2007, less than a month into his governorship, Charlie Crist announced a proposal to eliminate all touch-screen machines in Florida, including the ones Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Pinellas and 10 other smaller counties spent millions of dollars on them after the 2000 election (in many cases, the counties still had millions left to pay off). The trouble: the machines did not produce a paper trail, a fact that critics pounced upon. Furthermore, a botched Sarasota County congressional election in November 2006 produced more than 18,000 "undervotes" (or nonvotes) using the machines in a race in which the contenders were just 400 votes apart. It was time to change methods. Again."
The Time story says that with the new system, "voters will receive ballots at polling places and use a pen to color in a bubble of their choice or connect a line between two arrows. They then submit the ballot to a poll worker who will run it through a scanning machine. Although the actual ballot is considered the voter's "receipt" — a term the governor used while touting the system last year — voters walk away with nothing. Votes are still tabulated electronically. The ballots are used as a backup for auditing and recount purposes."
Sounds too high-tech to me, given the inability of Floridians to navigate previous tricky voting procedures.
The Time story reports that Florida "has had a fits-and-starts rollout of the new system. A tiny percentage of voters in large counties like Palm Beach and Hillsborough have already tried their hand at optical-scan ballots in small municipal elections. If it is any indication, Palm Beach's first experience was not comforting. The center of the 2000 presidential election debacle, the county held its first test with optical-scan ballots on June 24 in a one-race municipal election. It took three hours to produce results for a little more than 4,000 votes. Two of the machines that scan the ballots broke down and were quickly replaced. Worse yet, another 697 uncounted votes surfaced three days later after an audit was conducted. (The state government has blamed the county for the problems, saying local election officials were not familiar enough with the new system to make it work efficiently.)"
Once again I'm reminded of the statement by the late, great George Carlin that Americans are born with a front-row seat to the freak show of life. Floridians are probably born with a seat right on the stage.
Again, from Time magazine:
"Election supervisors switching to optical-scan ballots are holding their breath. Large counties including Miami-Dade, Broward and Pinellas will have their first big test on Aug. 26, during the primaries for local, state and federal offices. The areas represent more than half of Florida's registered voters.
"But it's the November presidential election that's causing a lot of stress. Some counties predict turnout to surpass 80%. Apart from the presidency, the ballot will include races for local judges; constitutional officers and city and county commissioners; state and U.S. Senators and representatives; and as many as 10 constitutional amendments. Voting with a paper ballot takes longer than with a touch-screen machine, and it may be unwieldy for poll workers to handle so much paper while dealing with a new system. Additionally, five counties offer multilanguage ballots."
The fear in Florida, justified by past experience, is that long lines caused by long ballots and the new voting system, will result in additional snafus on election day, Nov. 4.
To avoid problems, some of the larger counties -- including the largest, Miami-Dade -- will be promoting early voting and absentee ballots at least three weeks before the August and November elections. Miami-Dade County's supervisor of elections, Lester Sola, said about 30% of registered voters cast their votes early in the 2004 presidential election. "We expect long lines," he said. "We want to maximize these resources."
My response: "Good luck!"
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