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

from the just-asking dept

Thu, Nov 9th 2006 9:04am — Mike Masnick

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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27 Comments

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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.
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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
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Mr. Magoo, 9 Nov 2006 @ 9:50am

Thanks; you're a saint!
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Who cares?, 9 Nov 2006 @ 9:50am

Re: It's political
Let me Guess Mr. Magoo, you are a republican?
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Billy, 9 Nov 2006 @ 9:52am

Re: Re: It's political
You forgot the words 'die-hard' and 'brainwashed' there with republican
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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?
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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!
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Jimmy Johnson, 9 Nov 2006 @ 10:17am

silence!
It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again
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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
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Betaflame, 9 Nov 2006 @ 10:53am

Re: Bothced e-Voting - Simple idea
Hey now, don't go throwing logic into the equation.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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?
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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?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2006 @ 1:41pm

Re: Chill out
The big deal is that it is a statiscal aberration
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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