FLORIDA - Voters Describe Voting Machine Failures in Sarasota County

[kpete]

Thursday, December 07, 2006 at 5:00 PM

Jennings, Voters Describe Voting Machine Failures in Sarasota County

Jennings calls on elected officials to stand up for voters, not machines

Sarasota, FL – Christine Jennings today held a press conference with local Sarasota voters who experienced problems with the touchscreen voting machines in Sarasota County. Following is a statement given by Jennings at the press conference:

“Sarasota County’s voting system failed the people of the 13th District when more than 18,000 undervotes were recorded during early voting and on Election Day. Those missing votes clearly affected the outcome of this race.

“Despite sworn statements from hundreds of voters – from all walks of life – that there were problems with Sarasota’s voting machines, our election officials and Vern Buchanan claim the problem lies with the voters, not the machines. I think it’s worth asking why the people responsible for conducting our elections and those who want to represent our voters, such as Vern Buchanan, don’t believe the people of this county, some of whom are joining me here today.

“If my opponent wants to represent this district, he should be sticking up for the voters, not the machines. We still don’t have any answers about what went wrong. Vern Buchanan and our elected officials who are charged with conducting elections may be ok with that, but I’m not.

READ THE REST AT:
http://www.christinejenningsforcongress.com/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC={A57475F6-E2C3-44B5-A197-7D79FFB6185A}&DE={A42EBB4F-C03C-4543-9CA9-833E73D94501}

[bleever]

1. Blame the voters!

Brilliant!

Dean is right: re-vote. This election was not, and can't be, valid.

[philb]

2. Florida has had more reported touch screen switching that any state, and the pattern is consistent

switching from Dems to Repubs in major close races or switching to blank(disappearing votes)
There have been large numbers of machines documenting to be consistently switching, and sometimes there were enough
complaints to cause a machine to be taken out of voting. But often not.
The SOEs where it happens have consistently blamed the voters- even when its clear that this was not the case.
The problem was the machines, and it happened to every one who voted on a machine that was switching.

But not all machines were switching, just enough to swing a lot of votes in close races.

Larger numbers reported in 2004 because EP effort was larger.
www.flcv.com/fraudpat.html

but also widespread in Florida in 2006
www.flcv.com/Florida6.html

and also throughout the country
www.flcv.com/eirstss6.html

[Sancho]

3. What's amazing is that it's not the first time this has happened...

I watched the video and had that deja vue sense from the movies. In 2004, on a different machine in a different county (Pinellas), my wife and I went to vote for Castor and we really hoped to defeat Martinez. I heard my wife at a different machine call the poll worker and declare, "It won't let me vote for Castor. All I want to do is vote for Betty Castor." Every time she voted, it dropped her vote on the review page! The poll workers rebooted the machine with the help of some 20 year old techie...and despite my protests continued using it. That one of the main reasons I started hanging out on DU.

In a district that overwhelmingly approved a school tax increase, and elected several democratic candidates, Martinez won a close race?!?!?

We are such idots. This has been going on for years (2000?) and it's hard to believe that different machines in a different race in a different county could have the same problem - unless it is programmed to do so!

I sent a donation to Jennings. They need to put some people in jail.

[eomer]

4. There are more voter reports in the Amended Complaint.

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/FirstAmendedComplaint062973.pdf

See allegation 26 for eyewitness reports from 17 voters that the machines were malfunctioning.

Also see allegations 28 through 31 for poll worker reports and offical records indicating machine malfunction.

These reports and the fact that they corroborate each other as to details leave no reasonable doubt that the machines were malfunctioning.