(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick




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?

27 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Nov 9th, 2006 @ 9:43am
  • It's political

    by Mr. Magoo

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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 9:50am
    • Re: It's political

      by Who cares?

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

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 12:07pm
    • Re: It's political

      by Anonymous Coward

      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.

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    Nov 9th, 2006 @ 9:46am
  • by Mother Teresa

    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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 9:52am
  • Re: Re: It's political

    by Billy

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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 9:55am
    • Re: Re: Re: It's political

      by Who Cares?

      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?

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

      • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 11:35am
      • Re: Re: Re: Re: It's political

        by Anonymous Coward

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

        (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    Nov 9th, 2006 @ 9:56am
  • by Sea Man

    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!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 9th, 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.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 11:17am
    • Re: Yup

      by Jon

      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.

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 11:56am
    • Re: Yup

      by Wyndle

      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?

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    Nov 9th, 2006 @ 10:11am
  • Mr Magoo is right thou

    by Ajax 4Hire

    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.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 10:17am
  • silence!

    by Jimmy Johnson

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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 10:34am
  • Bothced e-Voting - Simple idea

    by Adam

    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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 11:14am
  • Chill out

    by Astravian

    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?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 1:41pm
    • Re: Chill out

      by Anonymous Coward

      The big deal is that it is a statiscal aberration

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

      • Nov 10th, 2006 @ 4:03am
      • Re: Re: Chill out

        by z0idberg

        >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.

        (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    Nov 9th, 2006 @ 11:16am
  • complaints only when dems win? BS

    by feral

    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.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 12:16pm
  • Disney/FLA

    by Anonymous Coward

    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?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 9th, 2006 @ 1:03pm
  • my magoo are you fucking retarded?

    by Anonymous Coward

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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 25th, 2008 @ 10:40pm
  • another mess!

    by carol

    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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Sep 4th, 2008 @ 1:22pm
  • Voting Printout

    by Sharon

    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.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 30th, 2009 @ 9:22pm
  • re

    by icon philip1111 (profile)

    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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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