STORM2K

Florida officials: Some voting records wiped out
Wednesday, July 28, 2004 Posted: 7:53 AM EDT (1153 GMT)

Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood speaks at a news conference Tuesday about voting machines.

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A computer crash erased detailed records from Miami-Dade County's first widespread use of touchscreen voting machines, raising again the specter of election 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.

The loss of data underscores problems with the touchscreen voting machines, the citizen's group said. "This is a disaster waiting to happen," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition. "Of course it's worrisome."

Well, heck, they still get the right to vote, don't they, Brent? They just need to ensure a proper means of counting those votes.

GalvestonDuck wrote:Well, heck, they still get the right to vote, don't they, Brent? They just need to ensure a proper means of counting those votes.

Yes, but they need to fix this junk. It's been 4 years since the fiasco in 2000. There's no excuse for it!

The Florida officials need to ensure that the citizens get to vote anyway they can and make sure that they are counted. I agree it's been 4 years and they still don't have the system right, but the citizens of Florida still have the right to vote.

Brent wrote:

GalvestonDuck wrote:Well, heck, they still get the right to vote, don't they, Brent? They just need to ensure a proper means of counting those votes.

Yes, but they need to fix this junk. It's been 4 years since the fiasco in 2000. There's no excuse for it!

I agree Brent, 4 yrs is a long time to resolve the problems they were having. And yes, they do have the right to vote but they need a voting system that works and doesn't cause another fiasco in 2004.
And they better work fast to resolve it cause time is running out.

Brent wrote:

GalvestonDuck wrote:Well, heck, they still get the right to vote, don't they, Brent? They just need to ensure a proper means of counting those votes.

Yes, but they need to fix this junk. It's been 4 years since the fiasco in 2000. There's no excuse for it!

Agreed, so what's with the topic title "Florida should not get to vote in November?"

At the very least, UF students and faculty should get to vote.