No Major E-Voting Problems, Huh? Then Where Are Florida's Missing Votes?

from the just-asking dept

In one of the stories we spotted yesterday about e-voting glitches, it was amusing to see (at the very, very bottom) the idea that "no major problems" were reported for e-voting in Florida. Florida and Ohio, of course, are the two places where e-voting stories have raised the most questions, and there had already been a number of reports of e-voting problems in Florida voting last week when their early polls opened. So, it looks like ABC may need to revise that "no major problems" report, as the EFF points us to a report saying that 13% of the electronic responses in Sarasota County included no vote for Congressional Representative. That means that somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 people who voted for other things, like governor, appear to have not voted for House Representative -- and no one seems to have a good explanation. It's certainly possible that all those people decided to go "none of the above," but it seems unlikely -- especially since similar undervoting was not seen in other counties covered by the same Congressional district. Also, there were complaints all day about the e-voting machines not properly recording votes in that county. So, while people are asking for a recount... there's nothing to recount since the machines did not record the votes. Amusingly, the EFF also notes that the very same county had a referendum on the ballot about the e-voting machines, and the people overwhelmingly voted to scrap the machines and bring back paper ballots. So what was it the press was just saying about no major glitches with e-voting?
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  • identicon
    Mr. Magoo, 9 Nov 2006 @ 9:43am

    It's political

    The only time there are voting problems is when Democrats lose. When the Democrats win, then they don't whine about it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Who cares?, 9 Nov 2006 @ 9:50am

      Re: It's political

      Let me Guess Mr. Magoo, you are a republican?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2006 @ 12:07pm

      Re: It's political

      horse shit. electronic voting is bad news and it makes ZERO difference who wins - it doesn't change the fact that e-voting doesn't work, will never work properly and must be stopped.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mother Teresa, 9 Nov 2006 @ 9:46am

    Only one reply to this... That sucks, but Mr. magoo I didn't want to let you keep feeling bad that you were the only one that cared so I figured that I'd post too so your not lonely

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Billy, 9 Nov 2006 @ 9:52am

    Re: Re: It's political

    You forgot the words 'die-hard' and 'brainwashed' there with republican

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Who Cares?, 9 Nov 2006 @ 9:55am

      Re: Re: Re: It's political

      True, but I wasn't attacking, just asking...But why is it it's only Florida that seems to have the major problems? Just a coincidence that Jeb is the governor?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2006 @ 11:35am

        Re: Re: Re: Re: It's political

        Or the fact that 25% of the population is over 60 and in general, have problems with the electronic voting machines.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Sea Man, 9 Nov 2006 @ 9:56am

    Don't worry MT, anyone who whines about dems is used to being lonely. Even when its not about dems losing (i.e. votes were potentially lost for either side).

    When will this madness stop? How many botched elections are needed before the election officials get the point? How many posts on Techdirt are needed? This is insane!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Who Cares?, 9 Nov 2006 @ 10:02am

      Re:

      How are they going to be able to rig the elections if they have a foolproof way of letting the people vote?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Arochone, 9 Nov 2006 @ 10:02am

    Yup

    Only problems reported when the dems lose. Here's the thing though - if the dems won by fraud, the republicans should be bitching. But they aren't. Why? Because they know that if they did, and anyone actually looked into it, most of the fraud found would be in favor of the republicans.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Jon, 9 Nov 2006 @ 11:17am

      Re: Yup

      In 2000, there were several areas where re-counts showed Republican wins. You don't know about those, as they were only reported locally--they weren't "national" news.

      I guess the only way to satisfy people is to let Florida's vote be decided by news readers--since the media reports what the readers want to hear. But make sure that the people in Florida, especially north and central Florida, don't get their votes counted.

      I agree, the voting machines are a joke. But it wouldn't make any difference what system Florida used, it would be wrong if Republicans won. Let's see, there was a mistake in 1 county for 1 office--yep, that means that we can throw out all the votes in Florida and claim it was Republican fraud. If there was an obvious machine error, it was caused by the Republicans.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Wyndle, 9 Nov 2006 @ 11:56am

      Re: Yup

      Do YOU have proof of fraud on either side? If so speak up. Otherwise, don't point fingers since a fraud allowed to happen now could cause your preferred party to lose in the next election. Would you rather have a redo now or in 2008?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ajax 4Hire, 9 Nov 2006 @ 10:11am

    Mr Magoo is right thou

    When there were irregularities in the panhandle of Florida (both in registering votes and early news reporting due to Central Time Zone) there was little NEWS reporting.

    But everyone knows about the South Florida hanging chads.

    South Florida is predominately Democrat;
    Florida panhandle leans toward Republican.

    So, yes, the NEWS does slant the whine about voting irregularity if the whining favors democrats.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jimmy Johnson, 9 Nov 2006 @ 10:17am

    silence!

    It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Adam, 9 Nov 2006 @ 10:34am

    Bothced e-Voting - Simple idea

    hmmmm... Here's simple idea.

    Fire the company that brought you the blasted e-voting machines that don't work, and go with another vendor to manage the whole thing that has a better track record?

    Adam

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Betaflame, 9 Nov 2006 @ 10:53am

      Re: Bothced e-Voting - Simple idea

      Hey now, don't go throwing logic into the equation.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Astravian, 9 Nov 2006 @ 11:14am

    Chill out

    Uh, I voted for the governor in my state but declined to vote for the congressional seat because there were no good choices. I can realistically see 8000 people doing that. What's the big deal?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2006 @ 1:41pm

      Re: Chill out

      The big deal is that it is a statiscal aberration

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        z0idberg, 10 Nov 2006 @ 4:03am

        Re: Re: Chill out

        >The big deal is that it is a statiscal aberration

        No. The big deal is that there is no way to tell whether it is a statistical aberration as there is nothing to recount. So if there is any doubt at all then it can never be checked so there will always be doubt.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    feral, 9 Nov 2006 @ 11:16am

    complaints only when dems win? BS

    There were plenty of complaints lodged with the election up here, and the dems did just fine. We had few hundred people across the state that I know of who were marked in the rolls as being required to cast a provisional ballot. When they did so and went down to the board of elections, officials told them they weren't flagged in the system and should not have been required to use a provisional ballot.

    There's plenty of problems going on with electronic voting systems and databases, regardless of the winners. This is not a partisan issue, and we all need to be concerned.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Assam (profile), 19 Jul 2009 @ 8:44pm

      Re: complaints only when dems win? BS

      Nice comment feral I am very pleased with your thoughts and does bot like to add anything to it. =============== John Assam real estate

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2006 @ 12:16pm

    Disney/FLA

    Disney/ABC has many rea$ons to not rock Florida's boat ... like their most profitable theme parks ...
    Which is the greater scandal, the voting fraud or the reluctance of MSM to acknowledge it?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2006 @ 1:03pm

    my magoo are you fucking retarded?

    did you not notice that a repubican DID win the district which wasnt counting the votes for the area?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    carol, 25 Jun 2008 @ 10:40pm

    another mess!

    should we give them another chance?i think we should.even though we are pissed off,let us give them another chance,it counts at the end of the day.i had aonother chance and i am glad. carol smith Florida Drug Rehab

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Sharon, 4 Sep 2008 @ 1:22pm

    Voting Printout

    This is to easy. We should have a complete printout reciept of our voting. The machines have the only count. In case there's a needs for a recount, we have our printouts. I would prefer a manual machine. Just in case the electricity go's out. In certain area, this always happens some how.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    philip1111 (profile), 30 Jul 2009 @ 9:22pm

    re

    A very smart and diplomatic answer. It’s really appreciable and generous. The society is facing problems with such laws. This has to go legal and it’s needed to be sorted at the earliest. ------------ philip Real Estate

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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