New Voting Machines…

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What do they look like and how do they work?
In May, Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist did something I had hoped he’d do. He led an initiative to require a paper trail in Florida’s election. You’ll remember that in the 2000 election many of the polling places in Florida still had the old-fashioned punch card systems. Because of voter error (failure to make sure the holes had been completely punched through) and badly designed ballot booklets (butterfly ballots) this led the terrible scene that kept the presidential election in the balance for far too long. During the recounts had judges and others trying to determine a “voter’s intent” rather than merely counting the votes. It was a mess.
And it only got worse. In reaction to the all the bad publicity Florida got during the 2000 debacle, the legislature and governor Bush required electronic polling. Problem was they bought millions of dollars worth of machines that provided no paper trail, no means to conduct a manual recount. The result was the loss of even more credibility of the elections process.
Governor Crist, who I disagree with on a lot of things like his endorsement of the man-made global warming fraud, promised to restore confidence in the process by mandating paper ballots that can be re-counted if necessary. And he delivered. Back in May he signed such bill. New machines will scan paper ballots.
Problem is I couldn’t find a description of these new machines, or how they work. I’m not attacking the machines or saying anything unseemly is afoot here. I just think it would be nice, as a voter, to know what the process is going to be like. We’re only 3 weeks away from the presidential primary.
Our local fish wrap hasn’t, to my knowledge, published an article about these new machines and how they work. I may be wrong here. Correct me in the comments if I am.

11 thoughts on “New Voting Machines…”

  2. I’m in Palm Beach County and I’d like to point out that the butterfly ballot was not poorly designed. If the “right” candidate had won the state nobody would have batted an eyelash at it.
    Gore is a selfish loser. He was willing to throw our electoral process into chaos in the hopes that he could shave off enough of the margin of error in his favor. His convenient truth bending in his crusade for man made global warming and other tall tales (lead the creation of the internet) speaks to his hunger for notoriety.

  3. For what it’s worth, the system used in Duval County requires you to mark your choice on a paper ballot that is legal size. This page is then inserted into a machine that sucks it in, scans it and stores it. So the paper trail, in our case, is the original ballot you made your choices on.

  4. TomSawyer,
    The butterfly ballot was poorly designed, in fact it was not a valid format under the law at that time. But the person who made that mistake was the supervisor of elections, Theresa LePore who was a democrat. You’re right, it wasn’t a conspiracy to rob Al Gore of the election, but the butterfly ballot was a mistake.

  5. I must say: I will NEVER feel comfortable with electronic voting machines. It’s mechanical or nothing for me. Electronic information is simply too easy to alter – in my humble opinion.
    Cheers,
    -AB

  6. LePore designed it and took the fall for it but it was widely circulated before and after it was finalized. All registered voters in the county are mailed sample ballots prior to elections.
    The alternative to the butterfly was to use a smaller font or to have the presidential candidates span multiple pages. If they’d gone for multiple pages then some minor parties may have complained that it was too difficult for the blue hairs to notice the arrow at the bottom telling them to turn the page for more options. That’d probably have been easy enough to wave off.
    If they’d have gone for a smaller font then the same scam would probably have gone down. I remember the blue hairs suddenly remembered they were sight impaired and/or the butterfly ballot was confusing as Algore’s chances of taking the state were sinking.

  8. Let me cut to the quick here: I used that butterfly ballot countless times and I never — NEVER… NEVER, EVER — doubted who I voted for. You know why? I have a brain. I just matched the little holes with little numbers on top of the little holes to the numbers on the ballot. Simple.
    If you want your vote to count, you take extra care. Period. Anything else, you’re just another whining dumbass sore fucking loser Democrat.
    Happy New Year!

  9. I don’t see how this article could go anywhere that’d end well when the first paragraph sets up this mountain of melodramatic B.S.
    “The man who lost the popular vote both country-wide and in the state of Florida was recently elected President of the United States BECAUSE a ballot in Palm Beach, Florida, was printed in such a way that when people attempted to vote for the Democratic candidate, Gore, many ended up voting for the conservative candidate, Buchanan, or for both Gore and Buchanan.”

  11. Optical scanners of the one their considering had a failure rate, twice of the other machines; when
    they were employed in Central Florida and some
    South West Florida Counties in 2000. Hillsborough
    county was one I beleive; but you get that detail
    from Ion Sancho, as he was one who refused to use
    the felon lists and not surprisingly felons voted.

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