article on FL

["Margit Johansson" <margitjo@xxxxxxxxx>]

ELECTIONS
Glitches cited in early voting
Early voters are urged to cast their ballots with care following
scattered reports of problems with heavily used machines.
BY CHARLES RABIN AND DARRAN SIMON
dsimon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After a week of early voting, a handful of glitches with electronic
voting machines have drawn the ire of voters, reassurances from
elections supervisors -- and a caution against the careless casting
of ballots.

Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the
electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review
screen -- the final voting step.

Election officials say they aren't aware of any serious voting
issues. But in Broward County, for example, they don't know how
widespread the machine problems are because there's no process for
poll workers to quickly report minor issues and no central database
of machine problems.

In Miami-Dade, incidents are logged and reported daily and recorded
in a central database. Problem machines are shut down.

''In the past, Miami-Dade County would send someone to correct the
machine on site,'' said Lester Sola, county supervisor of elections.
Now, he said, ``We close the machine down and put a seal on it.''

Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American
Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote
went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what
was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial
candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly
registered the Republican, Charlie Crist.

That's exactly the kind of problem that sends conspiracy theorists
into high gear -- especially in South Florida, where a history of
problems at the polls have made voters particularly skittish.

A poll worker then helped Rudolf, but it took three tries to get it
right, Reed said.

''I'm shocked because I really want . . . to trust that the issues
with irregularities with voting machines have been resolved,'' said
Reed, a paralegal. ``It worries me because the races are so close.''

Broward Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Mary Cooney said it's not
uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync,
making votes register incorrectly. Poll workers are trained to
recalibrate them on the spot -- essentially, to realign the video
screen with the electronics inside. The 15-step process is outlined
in the poll-workers manual.

''It is resolved right there at the early-voting site,'' Cooney said.

Broward poll workers keep a log of all maintenance done on machines
at each site. But the Supervisor of Elections office doesn't see that
log until the early voting period ends. And a machine isn't taken out
of service unless the poll clerk decides it's a chronic poor
performer that can't be fixed.

Cooney said no machines have been removed during early voting, and
she is not aware of any serious problems.

In Miami-Dade, two machines have been taken out of service during
early voting. No votes were lost, Sola said.

Joan Marek, 60, a Democrat from Hollywood, was also stunned to see
Charlie Crist on her ballot review page after voting on Thursday.
''Am I on the voting screen again?'' she wondered. ``Well, this is
too weird.''

Marek corrected her ballot and alerted poll workers at the Hollywood
satellite courthouse, who she said told her they'd had previous
problems with the same machine.

Poll workers did some work on her machine when she finished voting,
Marek said. But no report was made to the Supervisor of Elections
office and the machine was not removed, Cooney said.

Workers at the Hollywood poll said there had been no voting problems
on Friday.

Mauricio Raponi wanted to vote for Democrats across the board at the
Lemon City Library in Miami on Thursday. But each time he hit the
button next to the candidate, the Republican choice showed up.
Raponi, 53, persevered until the machine worked. Then he alerted a
poll worker.

Miami Herald staff writer Linda Topping Streitfeld contributed to
this report.





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