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Imran Siddiqui
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The Potterverse
Jan 1970
time: 00:22
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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/news?tmp...lorida_governor
quote:
Reno Refuses to Concede in Fla. Race
Fri Sep 13, 4:20 AM ET
By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer
TAMPA (AP) - He gave a victory speech, thanked supporters and even began challenging the Republican opponent to a series of debates. But Bill McBride's bid for the Democratic nomination in the Florida gubernatorial race is far from over.
Opponent Janet Reno ( news - web sites) has refused to concede and isn't ruling out a court challenge after questions arose about balloting in two big counties where she had expected to pick up more votes.
McBride, a Tampa lawyer, held an 8,196-vote lead over the former Attorney General after unofficial results were certified Thursday.
The certification came two days after a primary in which polling stations opened late and elections workers had a myriad of problems with new touchscreen voting machines that were brought in after the 2000 presidential election.
McBride's razor-thin margin of victory exceeded half a percentage point, the trigger for an automatic machine recount. More than 1.3 million votes were cast.
But problems have cropped up that could benefit Reno.
Miami-Dade officials, for one, reviewed the vote totals from four precincts Thursday and found an additional 1,818 votes that had not been counted. The county did not say how many of those votes were for Reno, who won Miami-Dade by more than a 3-1 margin in Tuesday's primary and fell only 1,445 votes short of triggering the recount.
Officials said the four precincts originally showed a total of 96 votes that had not been counted.
Miami-Dade officials also were re-examining the count Thursday in 10 precincts that showed turnout was less than 10 percent.
"We have experienced many questions about the electoral process. I think those questions must be answered," Reno said.
According to the state, McBride had 601,008 votes, or 44.5 percent, to Reno's 592,812 votes, or 43.9 percent. State Sen. Daryl Jones ( news, bio, voting record) of Miami had 156,358 votes, or 11.6 percent. The deadline for official certifications of the results is next week.
McBride called Reno on the phone about an hour and a half before he went in front of television cameras to declare victory, telling her that he wanted to move forward with efforts to run against Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in the Nov. 5 general election.
During the victory speech, McBride urged unity and challenged Bush to a series of debates.
"Let's get a flatbed truck, go from city to city," McBride said. "You talk, then I'll talk ... but you can't do it unless you're willing to shoot straight with people."
Reno said she would not ask for a new election. But campaign attorney Alan Greer said Reno had not decided whether to seek a recount or go to court to challenge the results.
Greer and Reno campaign manager Mo Elleithee specifically questioned Miami-Dade County's ballot count in 81 precincts, saying thousands of votes could have been affected on Reno's home turf. They also said there could be problems in nearby Broward County.
Elleithee said the campaign has received hundreds of affidavits from voters alleging problems, and has e-mailed supporters statewide asking for more examples.
Reno promised to support McBride if he turns out to be the nominee, and Greer said the campaign is trying to avoid doing anything that would hurt the Democratic effort to oust Bush this fall.
But Robin Rorapaugh, McBride's campaign manager, said a court challenge by Reno could cost Democrats and be "horribly divisive" in the campaign against Bush.
Florida had enacted new laws and spent $32 million to reform its election system, eliminating paper chads altogether and hoping to avoid other problems that held up the 2000 presidential election for seven weeks.
Instead, hundreds of people complained they were turned away from the polls and many problems were reported in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, considered key by Reno's campaign.
The election woes reminded many of the presidential contest, when George W. Bush's 537-vote victory was delayed as Al Gore ( news - web sites) demanded recounts and Democrats complained of uncounted punchcard ballots.
Gov. Bush, the president's brother, blamed the latest problems on Democratic election chiefs.
"More resources, more training, more equipment, more state dollars, two years to do this, and it appears there were flaws in the implementation. Sixty-five counties got it right," Bush said.
But Elleithee pointed at Bush for the voting problems.
"We wouldn't be in this mess today if Jeb Bush had learned the lessons from 2000 about how to run an election," he said. "There were problems all over the state."
McBride, who once headed Florida's largest law firm, was a political unknown when the campaign began and he trailed Reno by more than 25 points two months ago. But he won endorsements from key Democratic leaders and seemed to benefit from GOP attack ads that helped boost his name recognition. |
AAAAH! Why is Florida still allowed to have elections?! 
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walruskkkch
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Now Appearing Nightly at the Stardust lounge
Oct 1999
time: 00:22
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How to cast vote: Chisel stone tablet
BY DAVE BARRY
The question you're asking yourself is: Does South Florida contain the highest concentration of morons in the entire world? Or just in the United States?
The reason you're asking this, of course, is South Florida's performance in Tuesday's election. This election was critical to our image, because of our performance in the 2000 presidential election -- the one that ended up with the entire rest of the nation watching, impatiently, as clumps of sleep-deprived South Florida election officials squinted at cardboard ballots, trying to figure out what the hell the voters were thinking when they apparently voted for two presidents, or no presidents, or part of a president, or, in some cases, simply drooled on the ballot.
Before it was over, we had roughly 23 million lawyers down here -- nearly a quarter of the nation's lawyer supply -- filing briefs and torts and arguing in endless televised hearings, until finally the whole mess wound up in the U.S. Supreme Court, which declared George W. Bush the winner, but only because it would have been unconstitutional to apply the more logical remedy, which would be to kick Florida out of the union. We were a national joke. The phrase ''Florida voter'' became a standard comedy-routine synonym for ``idiot.''
And thus there was a lot of pressure on Florida, and particularly South Florida, to redeem itself in Tuesday's election. We knew that we could not afford to repeat the 2000 fiasco, and our election officials had more than a year and a half to develop, and test, a voting procedure that even we could not screw up.
So what did our election officials do? Let's examine the problem, and two possible solutions:
THE PROBLEM: Voters had trouble understanding a balloting system that required them to punch holes in a piece of cardboard.
SOLUTION A: Use an even simpler system.
SOLUTION B: Use a more complicated system.
COMPUTERS!
Pretty much any life form with a central nervous system, including a reasonably bright squid, would choose Solution A. So naturally our election officials went with Solution B. Yes. Having seen that South Florida voters -- people who have yet to figure out how an automobile turn signal works -- were baffled by pieces of cardboard, our leaders decided to confront them with . . . computers! And we all know how easy it is to figure out unfamiliar computer systems! That's why the expression ''As easy as figuring out an unfamiliar computer system'' is so common.
So Miami-Dade County spent $24.5 million on 7,200 computerized voting machines. Broward spent $17.2 million on 5,200 of the same machines. The particular model that we bought is called the ``iVotronic.''
TIP FOR CONSUMERS: Never buy a product whose manufacturer does not understand the basic rules of capitalization.
But confronting voters with unfamiliar machines does not, by itself, ensure that your election will be a mess. No, to GUARANTEE failure, you need to take additional precautions, such as: (1) Not training poll workers adequately; (2) Providing confusing instructions; (3) Not having enough technical support; (4) Changing the voting-machine software at the last minute.
WHO WON?
We managed to make all of these mistakes, and more, which is why today, days later, we are still not 100 percent certain which candidates won on Tuesday. I would not completely rule out Pat Buchanan.
And so once again, South Florida is making life easy for Leno and Letterman. What is the solution? How can we avoid being international laughingstocks in the next election?
My suggestion -- call me crazy -- is that we print the ballot on paper, with a box next to each candidate's name. We instruct the voters to put an ''X'' in their candidate's box. Then we have human beings count the ``X''s, and the candidate with the most votes wins.
I realize this is a radical system, but I believe that it would be difficult for even South Floridians to screw it up. We could get our elections over within a single day, like everybody else, and we would have more time to enjoy the pleasures of South Florida.
Such as scuba diving. On our new artificial reef.
Formed by 12,400 iVotronics.
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Poppa Bear
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I have lived in areas where punch cards were used and I currently live in an area where touch screen computers are used.
No one seems to have a problem with either except in South Florida and then only the democrats.
I think that the real problem is that they are too stupid to vote.
After the last election fifth graders in Alabama were given Florida ballots in a test and they had no problems.
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Lefty Scaevola
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San Antonio TX USA
Oct 2000
time: 23:22
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quote:
Originally posted by Boris Godunov
this was the fault of the Florida Election Commission. Their machines didn't work right.
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100% bullshit lie Boris. The Florida election commision does not provide machine. It provide part of the funding and a list of laws and regulation. Which include all the permitted and prohibited types of voting equipment. The county Election boards (Democratic controlled in the two problem couties) chose from the permitted one, purchases them, and is respobile for trainning (apparently neglect in these two couties, but not elswhere) their personel on operation and set up. They also oversee the election in their counties, supply the personel to set up and oversee polligs place. In a primary ellection like this the parties are repsosible for a large share of the temporary expenses, and suppling many of the poll worker personnel (most of the republicans showed up, a high percentage of the Dems did not) It would typically be some a (temporary) worker of the county board in charge of setting up the polling place, rather than party worker. It would a similar operation for a general election, but removing the parties from supply cost and personnel, but many of the additional temporary poll workers supplied by the county would be the same one the parties had supplied for the primary. At the gernral election each party may send poll watchers to observe and note any irregularities commited by the poll workers.
You gust forth a great bellow of BS accusation from a vacuum of knowlege, contrary to the natural order of things.
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Lefty Scaevola
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San Antonio TX USA
Oct 2000
time: 23:22
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quote:
Originally posted by MrFun
That way, Democrats who are intelligent and have common sense, will no longer be blamed for other people's idiotic behavior. |
The already moved to the green party.
edit (com'on, now someone set me up with the next straight line)
Last edited by Lefty Scaevola on 13-09-2002 at 23:49
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Boris Godunov
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Portland, OR
Aug 2001
time: 00:22
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quote:
Originally posted by Lefty Scaevola
100% bullshit lie Boris...You gust forth a great bellow of BS accusation from a vacuum of knowlege, contrary to the natural order of things. |
Wow, such a polite post. Yes, it was the county boards that got the machines. But my point still stands, for the people blasting the voters for somehow being stupid--it wasn't the voters, it was the process that failed:
quote:
Miami-Dade County officials lost faith Thursday in their own ballot count, saying a spot check of returns from Tuesday's botched primary revealed serious discrepancies that could require a re-examination of all 7,200 machines.
The extraordinary development called into question the outcome of several close statewide races, including the Democratic gubernatorial primary between Janet Reno and Bill McBride.
It also raised fresh questions about the new iVotronic touch-screen machines, the same brand bought by Broward County Election Supervisor Miriam Oliphant and supervisors in 10 other Florida counties.
Gwen Margolis, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade County Commission and a member of the election canvassing board, predicted that returns from every machine in the county would have to be recounted.
The machines were supposed to help repair, and restore faith in, Florida's shattered electoral system.
''I don't see any choice but to do it this way,'' Margolis said of a full recount in Miami-Dade. ``You can't rush through this.''
And when she was told of this new problem? ''It took my breath away,'' she said. ``It's outrageous.''
One indication of serious trouble that materialized Thursday:
Several Miami-Dade precincts, each with hundreds of registered voters, are listed as showing one or even no votes cast Tuesday, a virtual impossibility. Broward's tabulation shows at least one precinct with hundreds of registered voters and no votes cast.
''When you get one vote in a place with 1,500 registered voters, you know there's something wrong,'' said David Leahy, Miami-Dade's election supervisor.
It was not known if similar concerns have been raised by Oliphant, who bought 5,200 iVotronics for Broward. She and her assistants refused to answer any substantive inquiry Thursday about the election or the tally.
By Thursday night, many questions remained but this seemed clear: The primary that began chaotically in Broward and Miami-Dade was ending the same way.
''We've gone from dead folks voting to live folks not being able to vote,'' said Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler, who called for Leahy to step aside and allow an outside expert to take over.
Leahy, who didn't respond to that call, filed unofficial countywide vote totals by noon Thursday, as required by state law. But a few hours later, he said the tally might have been seriously compromised by a combination of human error and mechanical complexity.
''We found a lot of votes that had not been collected,'' he said.
The problem: Spot checks showed serious differences within the same precincts between vote totals produced by the main tabulation system and a backup system.
THE NUMBERS
Gisela Salas, one of Leahy's top aides, said experts were trying to assess the magnitude of the problem, which could be enormous.
Discrepancies were found in four precincts and suspected in at least eight others.
One of the four precincts was 254 at Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church in Liberty City. The initial count showed 89 votes cast there, but when the backup system was applied Thursday morning, 610 votes appeared.
Also, votes in precinct 148 in North Miami went from one to 497; in precinct 105 in Northeast Miami-Dade, from two to 434; in precinct 14 in Miami Beach, from four to 373.
Leahy hastened to add that no votes were believed to have been lost forever. They remain inside each machine's computerized memory, he said, but for unknown reasons were not transferred to collection devices after the election.
The main tabulation system uses a device called a ''master activator,'' which harvests votes from the touch-screen machines on election night and transmits them to headquarters through telephone lines.
The backup system uses ''a flash-card PEB,'' a device that reads memory chips installed on the touch screens. That process requires machines to be transported to election headquarters, a laborious and time-consuming procedure.
The process of reading those memory chips is called ''re-collecting,'' a new term in Florida's lexicon of electoral snafus.
''This is like chads,'' Salas said, perhaps choosing an unfortunate comparison. ``We have to do re-collection education. This is the new, improved version.''
She said employees were examining printouts from all 754 Miami-Dade precincts and would double-check any provocative return. That process could last through the weekend. If more anomalies are found, more ''re-collecting'' will be necessary, she said.
Leahy said much of the problem might be attributed to poll worker inexperience. He said some workers might have removed the activators before all votes were harvested. That would suggest another failure of training.
It is also possible, he said, that some activators failed to work properly.
''It may be because they didn't have time, or may have been because they couldn't retrieve the data,'' Leahy said. ``They stuck in the master [activator] and nothing happened. It wouldn't upload.''
A spokesman for Election Systems & Software, the company that makes the iVotronic, said in a statement Thursday that it was conducting ''a thorough analysis of all reported issues'' but was certain that no votes ``were lost or not counted.''
Many South Floridians might question the scope of that statement. Hundreds or possibly thousands of would-be voters walked away without casting ballots Tuesday when an epidemic of start-up problems created long delays and lines.
Early indications Thursday suggested that the problem might extend into Broward.
Although the official tally showed no votes in Pembroke Pines' precinct 32X, voters cast ballots there, according to Angelo Castillo, a Republican who said he voted there Tuesday.
''I pressed the red button,'' Castillo said. 'It said, `Thank you for voting' and I left.''
The precinct, at Fire Station 79, was one of many Broward polls that didn't open on time. County documents show 832 registered voters in the precinct.
Broward's Oliphant, whose competence was under attack from many quarters, filed a complete vote tally by the noon deadline, but amid considerable confusion.
Broward completed its tally at 11:12 p.m. Wednesday, but only after misplaced election machines -- at least one carried in the backseat of a 80-year-old poll worker's sedan -- finally found their way to headquarters.
MODEM TROUBLE
Tabulation problems in Broward began when modems in at least three of 14 regional tabulation centers didn't work. Poll workers were forced to take activators to Fort Lauderdale for processing.
Broward also misplaced about 250 activators on election night, according to an e-mail from Mike Lindsey, a state elections official who observed the count.
''They were improperly received by the warehouse crew, and were put up with precinct supplies!'' read the note sent to state Elections Director Ed Kast at 5:36 a.m. Wednesday.
Even at tabulation centers where modems were working, not enough people were available to handle the devices, according to county employees who were assisting Oliphant's office.
Back in Miami-Dade, Leahy distributed what he called ''final unofficial'' results at 3:30 a.m Thursday, more than 30 hours after polls closed.
One of many hitches in the process: Five voting machines from Emerson Elementary had been prematurely stored in a county warehouse, their returns untabulated.
Machines from four other polling locations didn't arrive until 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, also more than 24 hours late.
In both cases, the actual machines were required because poll workers were unable to transmit vote totals from 13 precincts to election headquarters.
Earlier in the process, Leahy reported that problems with the master activators caused data to be lost from at least 25 precincts in Hialeah, North Miami, Kendall, Doral and other parts of the county.
The devices, which resemble electric typewriter cartridges, were either damaged or rendered unreadable, he said. Each device contained data from all 10 to 12 machines in each precinct.
The botched vote counts, missed deadlines and other new complications aroused more dissonant echoes of Florida's embarrassingly inept presidential election of 2000.
Judicial Watch, a national group that investigates government abuses, requested that the Miami-Dade and Broward elections officials allow inspections of all ballots, computers and training material related to Tuesday's election.
Election officials in Miami-Dade and Broward did not immediately respond to the demand, which was filed under the Florida Sunshine law.
After the 2000 election, the group won similar access in Palm Beach County, home of the infamous butterfly ballot that confused thousands of voters.
''We want to get to the bottom of this [latest] election mess, and we want to hold those responsible personally accountable in a court of law,'' said Larry Klayman, chairman of the group, which is based in Washington, D.C. |
So you can take your bile and choke on it.
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13-09-2002 19:44
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