This morning the major news sources had yet more stories about the problems with touch screen voting. In this case, the problem was lost records. From the New York Times:
"The records disappeared after two computer system crashes last year, county elections officials said, leaving no audit trail for the 2002 gubernatorial primary. A citizens group uncovered the loss this month after requesting all audit data from that election."
Now, this compounds the problems they had in that election with "lost" votes, but what it also shows is the continuing lack of "sunshine" in Florida. These lost records have only been publicized now because a citizen group (Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition) requested audit data, then passed it on to the New York Times.
Paul Krugman drew attention to not only the worst case scenario that could unfold from problems with computerized voting, but the lack of will on the part of the state to examine those problems in daylight:
"Jeb Bush says he won't allow an independent examination of voting machines because he has "every confidence" in his handpicked election officials. Yet those officials have a history of slipshod performance on other matters related to voting and somehow their errors always end up favoring Republicans. Why should anyone trust their verdict on the integrity of voting machines, when another convenient mistake could deliver a Republican victory in a high-stakes national election?"
Having been born and raised in South Florida, I'm saddened to see that rather than learn from mistakes, the state continues and compounds its problems by hand waving and obfuscation. Oh wait, it's a Bush administration. As Carl Hiassen says "The Florida in my novels is not as seedy as the real Florida. It's hard to stay ahead of the curve. Every time I write a scene that I think is the sickest thing I have ever dreamed up, it is surpassed by something that happens in real life."
Posted by binky at July 28, 2004 11:23 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics