This is a follow up to the tour we had last night at the M. County Supervisor of Elections.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Adopted by Congress: 17 September 1787
Put into effect: 4 March 1789
AMENDMENT XXVI (ratified July 1, 1971)
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.


1. I found it interesting that they said that they were going to upgrade to the optical scanners after this election cycle. They have all of the new voting machines on site still in shrink wrap...that is a waste since they have been there since Sept of 2007 (wasteful spending and the technology can become antiquated) but that is another discussion.

2. They use the ESS iVotronic machine.
3. Someone asked, "What prompted the change in electronic systems? They replied Sarasota... well guess what. Sarasota used the ESS iVotronic.

4. See below for a listing of all ESS issues in FL. Across the country there are many (you can refilter the link here: http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp?sort=date&selectstate=FL&selectvendor=ESS&selectproblemtype=ALL)
5. Source code, "Pillowing" and Calibration seems to be the big KNOWN issues
6. Watch the video

Date Problem Type State
Description
Vendor

11/10/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Charlotte, Sumter, and Lee Counties. Excessive "undervotes" in the contest for state attorney general. 21%, 22%, and 18% respectively. Officials speculate that the contest was not obvious on the ES&S iVotronic screen, but wonder why voters didn't notice the undervote on the review screen. Story Archive
Note: In other counties using the iVotronic (Broward, Miami-Dade), voters complained that the contest did not appear on their screens.

11/8/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Sarasota County. The Jennings-Buchanan Congressional race was impacted by ES&S iVotronics malfunctions. The race did not show up on some screens, and dozens of voters complained that their selections did not appear on the review screen. There were more than 18,000 undervotes in that contest, while the contest above and below it on the ballot had fewer than 2000 undervotes. Story Archive
Jennings attorneys say the law allows a recount for the small margin (less than 1/4%), and they believe machine problems caused a loss of votes. Story Archive

11-9-06 Update. While the touch screen undervote in the Jenning-Buchanan race was 13% in the county, paper absentee ballots showed a 1.8% undervote in that race. Story

11/7/2006 Ballot display problems FL ESS Broward, Miami-Dade counties and Fort Meyers. Over 100 voters complained that neither the attorney general nor the chief financial officer races appeared on their ballots on the ES&S iVotronic voting machines. Story Archive
11/18/06 update. Excessive "undervotes" reported for these contests in the two counties. Story Archive

11/7/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward County. All 14 iVotronic machines stopped working at the Deerfield Beach Tower Club Teen Center. Officials said the machines weren't calibrated for the 7am starting time, so the the Personal Electronic Ballots (PEB) used to activate the machines didn't work. Many people turned away said they wouldn't be able to return. Story Archive
The problem, according to Broward Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Mary Cooney, was a voting system technician who activated machines at one precinct with the cartridge for the other. Both precincts are housed at the teen center. Elections officials resolved the Deerfield Beach problem by bringing in new voting machines and new cartridges. The technician also was replaced. Story2 Archive2

11/7/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Lee County. Printer on the ES&S iVotronic voting machines wouldn't print the zero tapes, which show that there are no ballots in the e-voting ballot box. Voting was delayed. Story Archive
11/5/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Sarasota County. Votes for Jennings, Democratic candidate for 13th Congressional District, fail to appear on the review screen of the ES&S iVotronic touch screens in several polling places. (A variation on the vote-switching seen in other States and other Florida Counties). Voters are able to return to the selection screen and correct the error, but there are questions about whether some votes for Jennings have been lost. Story Archive
10/28/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward County. Vote-switching to Republicans by the ES&S iVotronics. "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." Story Archive
10/28/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Miami-Dade County. Vote-switching to Republicans by ES&S iVotronics. "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." Story Archive
10/27/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward County - Vote-switching to Republicans by ES&S iVotronic. "After casting her votes, Marek, a Democrat, was surprised to see name of Charlie Crist -- the Republican candidate for governor -- on the review screen. ... She said poll workers told her the machine had been problematic before, but that they had reprogrammed it, a process they repeated after speaking to her." Story Archive
10/25/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward County. Some ES&S iVotronic touch screen machines "stopped working briefly and had to be restarted because of high-volume use, Cooney said. No votes were lost." Mary Cooney is the spokeswoman for the Supervisor of Elections.
''When some voters went to touch a choice for a precinct or candidate we would have to stop the voter, start again and then it would be fine,'' Cooney said. ``It hasn't slowed anyone down.'' Story Archive
5/7/2005 Machine malfunction FL ESS Miami-Dade County, Florida. A study of poll books and vote totals has revealed major discrepancies. 35% of the polling places had more votes than voters or lost votes. Story Archive
11/13/2004 Machine malfunction FL ESS Orange County absentee ballot tabulator (ES&S) started counting backwards after 32767 ballots, causing the posted precinct-by-precinct results to show a 9,227 margin of victory for Kerry while the county summary report showed only a 827 margin of victory for Kerry. A similar discrepancy affected vote totals posted online for the U.S. Senate race between Republican Mel Martinez and Democrat Betty Castor. Story Archive
11/4/2004 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward County. ES&S vote tabulating software used for absentee ballots "is not geared to count more than 32,000 votes in a precinct. So what happens when it gets to 32,000 is the software starts counting backward. Amendment 4 passed in Broward County by more than 240,000 votes rather than the 166,000-vote margin reported Wednesday night. ES&S has known about the problem for two years and done nothing about it. The same software is used in Martin and Miami-Dade Counties.Story Archive
11/4/2004 Machine malfunction FL ESS Collier County. Central computer added test votes to the tally on the ES&S tabulation software. Story Archive
11/2/2004 Machine malfunction FL ESS At least 21 voting machines in Broward County malfunctioned and were replaced Tuesday. Most of them had been used by some voters before being taken out of service. Story Archive
11/2/2004 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward County. An improperly calibrated machine at the polling place at 2501 Coral Springs Dr. in Coral Springs was used by an undetermined number of voters before it was replaced. If they did not review their ballots, it is possible that some votes were recorded inaccurately. Possibly other malfunctioning machines were also miscalibrated. Story Archive
11/2/2004 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward. Several touch-screen voting machines in Broward County malfunctioned this morning when their batteries went dead. Story Archive
10/31/2004 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward County. After waiting in line for several hours, several voters were told late Sunday evening that they would have to come back another day to be able to cast their ballot. The machines had broken down. Story Archive