BlogWood: MT Archives

E-voting? May as well flip a coin.

Remember a few days ago, when we discovered that Miami had lost computer data from the 2002 election - data it should have been backing up and archiving? Officials blamed the loss on a computer crash and said that no backups existed.

Well, now the data has been mysteriously recovered, found backed up on a CD and also on a hard drive. Convenient, eh?

Miami-Dade election officials said Friday that they found electronic records of recent elections that were thought to be lost in computer crashes, but the explanation did little to ease the swirl of controversy that again put the county's voting process under scrutiny. ......

The records at issue: audits produced by the machines that provide a record of every vote cast and serve as the only reliable backup to check the accuracy of electronic vote counting.

''It is the vital record that makes certain that the election was correct,'' said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition.

The controversy began July 1, when the Reform Coalition made a public-records request for audits of a September 2002 primary. The group wanted to examine how the touch-screen machines functioned.

Two weeks later, they received a troubling response. An e-mail from an election department official said: ``The system crashed in May 2003 and again November 2003. As a result we lost most of the data files for the September Primary 2002.''
......

When the news broke Wednesday, a team of state election officials and employees from the system's manufacturer, Election Systems & Software, arrived at election headquarters.

They found the audits on a computer, and Kaplan's secretary discovered a CD with information in a filing cabinet, the supervisor said.

Apparently, the department had been backing up the audit information all along -- as county auditors had recommended -- to prepare for server crashes.

Kaplan said crashes last year were caused not by technical failure, but by employees moving furniture without shutting the servers down.

Friday's discovery did little to assuage the fears of reformers worried about the Aug. 31 primary in a state made infamous by voting flaws in the 2000 presidential election.

Rodriguez-Taseff told commissioners the county not only needs to keep the audits, but to evaluate them.

The elections department does not regularly do that, and when an information-technology employee briefly took the task on himself last year, he found a significant glitch.

''Not only have we not looked at the audit data, we can't even find it,'' Rodriguez-Taseff said.

The coalition is particularly interested in a discovery by the American Civil Liberties Union that 1,544 people signed in at predominantly black precincts during the 2002 primary but never cast a vote.

'If the department cares about the accuracy of elections, it would have taken the audit data . . . and say, `How did we lose those votes?' '' Rodriguez-Taseff said.

''That is something we could do,'' Kaplan said. Asked later why the department had not done so yet, after two years with the machines, she said: ``We're not required to do it.''
......

Ferguson was the most critical. ``It's almost a flip of the coin if we're going to get through this election without a problem.''

So, critical data that may be able to shed some light on the reliability of these machines was “lost” and then “found,” but only after representatives of the manufacturer and Jeb!’s office flood the scene. Now, I’m not suggesting that anyone may have tampered with or falsified or even counterfeited this data in order to silence critics and put an end to this inquiry.

I mean, just because Jeb! and the ES&S have everything riding on this election, and just because tons of dirty tricks were used in 2000 in order to steal the White House, and just because Florida’s voter purge list was heavily flawed in favor of Republicans, and just because Democratic leaning black voters continue t not have their votes counted, and just because the Republican party is urging its own constituents to avoid voting on these machines, um...,

Okay, maybe I am suggesting that something more nefarious than this article implies may be at work. Unfortunately, we may never know for sure, but let me point out that as a computer guy, I know that it’s pretty easy for another computer guy to fake a backup data disk and/or change the data just enough to have it reflect whatever reality the customer (Jeb!) wants to see.

Florida’s e-voting machines have no auditable paper trail. if you want your vote to count, you must vote absentee via optical scan ballot. This means requesting and filling out an absentee ballot form your county elections supervisor.

Hillsborough County residents

(More information: General Hillsborough County info)

Here’s a link to all of the Florida county elections supervisors. You need to contact your local county elections supervisor in order to request an absentee ballot.

Follow the “continue...” link to learn more about voting absentee in Florida.

Voting Absentee in Florida

The following list of frequently asked questions is from the Hillsborough County supervisor’s web iste, and is therefore somewhat specific to county residents, but the rules are the same no matter where you reside in Florida - any registered voter can request and vote an absentee ballot. You do not need to actually be absent on election day. So follow this link and contact your own county supervisor and request an absentee ballot today.

ABSENTEE VOTING

Who is eligible for an absentee ballot?
If you are a qualified registered Hillsborough County voter, you are entitled to vote by absentee ballot.

How do I obtain an absentee ballot?
An absentee ballot may be requested for a specific election or for all elections in the current calendar year. The request can be made in person, by mail, fax, E-mail or by telephone. You can also fill out a request on-line by clicking here. The absentee request must include the voter's name, address, birthdate and signature if a written request. Only the voter or a designated member of his or her immediate family or legal guardian can request an absentee ballot for the voter. If the voter has designated an immediate family member or legal guardian to request an absentee ballot for him or herself, the designee must provide the required request information for the voter and the designee's name, address and relationship to the voter.

When are absentee ballots available?
Absentee ballots are mailed approximately 30 days prior to each election to those voters who have requested an absentee ballot. A qualified voter may vote in person at either of the two offices of the Supervisor of Elections during the two weeks prior to an election.

WARNING - In Hillsborough County, this form of in person early voting involves using paperless touch screen machines - the kind that are flawed and leave no paper trail.

For other available early voting sites, please call our office at 813-272-5850 for additional information. Within four days of an election, a designated person may carry out up to two ballots for anyone as long as the required request information is provided and the voter specifically authorizes the person to pick up the ballot in writing. There is no limitation on number of carryouts for immediate family members.

How do I return my absentee ballot?
Absentee ballots must be returned in the envelope provided. The envelope must include the voter's signature, the witness information and signature. Voted absentee ballots must be received by 5:00 p.m. on Election Day at the County Center office of the Supervisor of Elections or not later than 7 p.m. at the Robert L. Gilder Elections Service Center. A VOTED BALLOT CANNOT BE ACCEPTED AT A POLLING PLACE. If you request and receive an absentee ballot and later decide to vote at the polls, take your absentee ballot with you to be cancelled at your polling place.