News Flash; Broward County Florida Government Still Doesn't Work

by Vince?Daliessio

Eerily reminiscent of the 2000 election debacle in Florida, Broward County is experiencing major failures of its new electronic voting system in early voting;

In Palm Beach County, the center of the madness during the 2000 presidential recount, a state legislator said she wasn't given a complete absentee ballot when she asked not to use the electronic touch-screen machines. In Orange County, the computer system that lists voters briefly crashed, paralyzing voting in Orlando and its immediate suburbs. And in Broward County several sites had problems with laptops connected to elections headquarters.

How is it that billions of dollars of sophisticated economic activity can flow efficiently through the internet on a daily basis, while county governments flooded with sacks of federal tax money cannot even manage to operate the digital equivalent of two cans and a waxed string?

(Thanks to Wayne T for the article)

Posted 10/18/2004 2:47:04 PM by Vince ?Daliessio

You need to be reminded, perhaps, that there are sacks of federal tax money invilved, as I pointed out in my article. Which means there are big contracts to be let, and influence to be bought. Don't forget all the problems surrounding voting machines in the past. I think you could very easily and cheaply design an effective voting system by adapting the old optical scanners used to score standardized tests - you have a hard-copy that doesn't have the chad problem, and you have a digital record too. Speaking of chads, does anyone else have a problem with how during that controversy the press was so focused on the ballots themselves, and not on the people casting them? Ballots are just a commodity.

Posted 10/19/2004 10:11:50 AM by Vince Daliessio

Ok, I see the problem with the old-fashioned punch cards. And I can imagine the problem with 100% electronic voting machines. But what's the problem with the mechanical machines that most of us use? Why can't Florida use those?

Posted 10/19/2004 8:47:39 AM by Joe Pulcinella