FW: Miami Herald: Voting glitches found in 6 recent elections

["AlKolwicz" <alkolwicz@xxxxxxxxx>]

Interesting update -- see below.

Al


Al Kolwicz
2867 Tincup Circle
Boulder, CO 80305
303-494-1540
AlKolwicz@xxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: Vincent J. Lipsio [mailto:Vince@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 9:41 AM
To: Dr. Charles E. Corry
Cc: Al Kolwicz; Sheila Horton
Subject: Miami Herald: Voting glitches found in 6 recent elections

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/11271837.htm

Posted on Thu, Mar. 31, 2005
Voting glitches found in 6 recent elections

A computer error failed to count votes during the March 8 special 
election, calling into question five other local elections -- and 
the future of the county's elections supervisor.

By Tere Figueras Negrete and Noaki Schwartz <tfigueras@xxxxxxxxxx>


Electronic voting machines tossed out hundreds of ballots during 
this month's special election on slot machines -- and elections 
workers have traced the same computer error to five other 
municipal elections in the past 12 months.

Raising the red flag: An alarmingly high number of so-called 
"undervotes" in the March 8 election -- which only had one item 
on the ballot.

Embattled Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan has 
said that the incorrectly tabulated undervotes would not have 
affected the outcome of the elections. But County Manager George 
Burgess wants to review the outcome of five other elections.

"It's disturbing, and that's an understatement," Burgess told 
The Herald. "We have to take our responsibility seriously. Every 
vote needs to be counted."

Adding to Kaplan's woes: She also faces an independent audit of 
her department, demands from the gambling industry to call a new 
election and talk that her job may be on the line.

The reports of uncounted votes also bring renewed criticism from 
those who have been wary of the paper-free electronic voting 
machines -- an unsettling development for a county that had poured 
substantial resources into escaping the chad-filled ghost of the 
2000 presidential election.

"Her leadership is in question and has been in question for a 
long time," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, head of the Miami-Dade 
Election Reform Coalition and a longtime critic of the elections 
department.

ON THE HOT SEAT

Burgess called Kaplan into his office Wednesday for an hourlong 
closed-door talk. Through her spokesman, she told The Herald: 
"I'm very concerned about this matter. We are continuing to 
review and improve our operations."

Burgess, in a blunt memo to Mayor Carlos Alvarez and county 
commissioners, wrote that he found Kaplan's explanations "to be 
inadequate" and "unacceptable." He said he expects better 
answers from Kaplan by Friday.

The problem came to light after a review showed a "significantly 
higher proportion" of undervotes cast on the iVotronic machines 
than on undervotes submitted on absentee ballots, Kaplan wrote in 
a memo.

A total of 1,246 undervotes were recorded on the iVotronics for 
the March 8 slots referendum, versus 61 on the absentee ballot. 
"Undervoting" means a ballot was cast but no choice was made.

According to Kaplan:

Of the electronic undervotes, 477 could be blamed on an faulty 
computer program that should have protected people's votes even if 
they didn't press the flashing red button that finalizes the 
process.

In those cases, poll workers are supposed to insert a cartridge 
that tells the machine to count a "Yes" or "No" vote. But the 
bad coding told the machines to ignore the voter's selection.

ASSIGNING BLAME

Kaplan called it human error. Two election supervisors have been 
reassigned. She also blamed Elections System & Software, which 
makes the iVotronic. Kaplan said a project manager with ES&S 
failed to detect the coding problem.

In a statement, ES&S wrote: "Ultimate responsibility for all 
aspects of an election lies with the county . . . Under no 
circumstances would we ever have recommended this change to this 
particular default setting. In fact, we train election workers 
against it."

Kaplan didn't offer a reason for the 769 other undervotes 
tabulated on the iVotronic, but said her staff reported that some 
voters were "confused," thinking they were going to vote on 
schools and jobs -- not slots -- so they left without completing 
their vote.

The slots campaign, which passed in Broward but failed in 
Miami-Dade, focused on a message that slots would create jobs and 
boost education funds through taxes.

Ron Book, lobbyist for the parimutuel industry, which fought hard 
to get slot machines into South Florida parimutuels, says his 
clients will ask for a new election.

"Come on, anyone who is going out to vote in a special election 
knows what they're voting for," he said. "I don't buy it."

Kaplan said the November election, which included the presidential 
race as well as those for mayor and county commission seats, was 
not affected by the error.

ERROR REPEATED

The department has identified five questionable municipal races: 
West Miami, Bay Harbor Island and Surfside as well as a February 
election in Golden Beach and a January vote on incorporating 
Cutler Ridge.

Kaplan's memo says that none of the suspicious undervotes would 
have changed those results. Burgess said that those election 
results are under review.

OFFICE CRITICIZED

News of the undervotes come a month after Miami-Dade Inspector 
General Chris Mazzella ripped Kaplan's office for poor oversight 
of campaign financing in the November election. She disagreed.

Kaplan took over the troubled elections department in June 2003, 
nine months after a disastrous September primary marred by poll 
workers who were inadequately trained to operate the new iVotronic 
machines.

County Commission Chairman Joe Martinez said he is dismayed by the 
newest flap, saying Burgess should consider placing the elections 
department on probation "at the very least."

"Now I wonder, was my vote counted?" he said. "There shouldn't 
be undervotes with only one [item on the ballot]."

But not all the blame should rest on Kaplan, said Commissioner 
Barbara Carey-Shuler, who has long voiced her unease with the 
iVotronics.

"I don't think she should be made the sole scapegoat in this," 
Carey-Shuler said. "This is a new technology, and we're the 
guinea pigs."