Miami-Dade's elections chief urges new system

[Judi Lynn]

Miami-Dade's elections chief urges new system

By Chrystian Tejedor and Ihosvani Rodriguez
Sun-Sentinel
Posted May 28 2005


After repeated embarrassing glitches at the polls, elections officials in Miami-Dade County have recommended scrapping the county's $24.5 million electronic voting system in favor of paper ballots with optical scanners.

Supervisor of Elections Lester Sola made the recommendation Friday in an initial analysis of the county's voting system and the feasibility of adopting a new one. In his report, Sola said that adopting the simpler system could save county taxpayers millions and restore voter confidence by providing a paper record of ballots cast.

In April, an outraged Mayor Carlos Alvarez requested a study on the merits of the optical scan system after revelations that the Elections Department lost hundreds of votes during the March 8 slot machine referendum because of a coding error.
(snip)

Sola's report comes days after a voter advocacy group released a disparaging report that cited a litany of problems during last fall's general elections, among them malfunctioning voting machines.
(snip/...)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-delections28may28,0,5413475.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[halley]

1. Hope they go for it

AND Broward follows suit.

[AtLiberty]

2. Opti-scan is not much of an improvement...

Yes...there's a "paper trail," but the votes are still tallied electronically. Recounts are only allowed if the results fall within certain a margin -- how does one know if the margin is correct? The software is a trade secret. The GEMS server is easily hackable.

Diebold is blatantly partisan with means, motive, opportunity...