Once again, a St. Petersburg Times editorial has misled Florida voters. The insinuations that paper ballots are unreliable, touch screens have the best track record, breakdowns could have been avoided "if poll workers had been better trained" in California, and that everyone should calm down and just trust us contradicts the numerous published reports by computer scientists who state that electronic touch-screen voting is "open to grand scale fraud."
Voting is a form of accounting, so the same checks should be followed. Therefore, a voter verified paper audit trail is needed in the event that if there is a problem with security or machine malfunction, a manual recount could be conducted - as mandated by state law. It would also give the voter confidence that votes cast have been accurately counted.
I suggest that instead of repeatedly misleading voters with your editorials, why don't you get permission to print the New York Times' series on voting, "Making Votes Count: Elections With No Meaning."
"Democracy is not about trust; it's about distrust; it's about accountability." Without a verified paper audit trail, accountability is lost.
-- Kathleen Murray, St. Petersburg
Touch-screen trouble
Re: Touch-screen anxiety, May 9.
Your editorial misses the mark in several important areas. Contrary to the Times' assertion - which echoes Gov. Bush's - advocates of a paper trail for Florida's touch-screen voting systems are not "intent on casting doubt on the integrity of an election." In fact, the proponents of a paper trail are intent on assuring the integrity of elections when problems with the touch-screen systems occur - as they have with alarming regularity since touch screens were adopted after the 2000 debacle.
In just the last two years, unverifiable touch screens have produced results that touch-screen advocates continue to insist are not possible. In addition to the Broward County example you cited, on March 9, 255 votes disappeared in Hillsborough County, as did 211 votes in Pinellas County, and 189 votes in Sarasota County. An election in North Carolina resulted in 436 uncounted votes before officials detected the error and finished the election using paper ballots. In Georgia, touch-screen machines lost an entire precinct's worth of votes on Super Tuesday. In Mississippi, an entire election had to be held again after massive touch-screen failures left the state Senate unable to determine the will of the voters. In fact, every election held with touch-screen voting machines yields a new batch of case studies that show that these machines make errors and those errors result in lost votes as long as there is no voter-verifiable paper trail.
At the same time, the claim that "printers jam" is a specious argument. The average voting machine will tally fewer than 200 voters' choices in an election, which would require less printing than the cash register at your local supermarket does every day.
The elections officials quoted in your editorial defending touch-screen systems just spent millions of taxpayer dollars on new touch-screen machines. It is perfectly understandable that they are now trying to defend their decisions, which were made in good faith based on the sales pitches of touch screen manufacturers. Now that we have real-world results that show that there are still problems, those officials should take the necessary steps to provide a voter-verifiable paper trail before there is another election catastrophe. For the record, I agree that it is probably not possible to implement a paper trail in time for the 2004 elections, but there is no excuse to not have it done by 2006.
-- Rob MacKenna, Tampa
Backing up our votes
The Times' editorial of May 9 urges us to "calm down" and avoid rushing to a voter-verified paper trail for votes cast via touch-screen machines.
This counsel is naive at best. We need a paper record of ballots cast for two reasons: the inherent vulnerability of all computer systems and partisan no-holds-barred efforts to win elections.
Who among computer users has not experienced loss of data through power surges or a hardware or software malfunction? Computers are imperfect, and the sage but oft-ignored advice to backup is as important for our votes as for our home computers.
Have we forgotten the illegal lengths Nixon undertook to secure his re-election? Or the wide net cast by Katherine Harris in 2000 to turn tens of thousands of registered voters (mostly Democrats) away from the polls because they shared a birthday or a last name with a convicted felon? Or the ongoing investigation into "Memogate," where Republican staffers hacked into and downloaded Democratic documents?
So long as machines malfunction, and political ambition spawns illegal activity, I want a verifiable record of my vote.
-- Pat Bastian, Tampa
What's the big deal?
We can send men to the moon, we can send robots to Mars, but we can't seem to be able to press one button on an electronic voting machine to print out a paper ballot to ensure there is no hanky-panky by some computer genius. The voter can check his voting record to be sure it is what he voted for and put it into the ballot box. The paper ballot can then be checked against the electronic voting machine if there is any question. What's the big deal?
-- Richard Koslow, Gulfport
McCain should put country first
Re: He keeps saying no, but some Democrats keep dreaming, May 16.
If ever a time is needed to unite our country, it is now. Sen. John McCain could certainly do this, after all, he should have been elected president in the first place. He lost out to money and charm, and look what it got us.
It is the duty of, through patriotism and the love for one's country, that one puts the country first, and their party second.
-- Donald F. Kelly, St. Petersburg
Dishing it out to the right
Re: Tortured by liberal talk radio, by Michael Goodwin, May 15.
Ahhh, it's good to hear someone from the right being exasperated by talk radio that supports liberal issues and progressive politicians. Everyone knows that the right likes to dish it out but boy do they have a hard time taking it.
Like most dittoheads, Goodwin uses obvious comedic and satirical statements from Franken and Rhodes to label Air America as some kind of tortured radio. Guess he did not want to mention the interviews with Sen. John McCain, Richard Clark or the gentleman from the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. I don't recall Rush Limbaugh and his ilk even allowing alternative points of view on their shows. I know callers who offer alternative points of view are never heard.
My all-time favorite of Limbaugh was when he said women should be "hurt" not "heard" and, of course, the now famous "femiNazi" designation of any woman who doesn't want to be barefoot and pregnant under her husband's chattel chain. Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity make so many vile comments on their shows that all you have to do is listen for about three minutes before your jaw drops, and Goodwin has a problem with Air America? I won't even go into the lies they spew on their shows.
I too called one of the advertisers on Air America and told them that because of their ad I will continue to be a loyal customer. They sent me some coupons. Works both ways, Mr. Goodwin.
-- Nancy Whitman, St. Petersburg
Clean up the mercury mess
As a grandmother of two young anglers who enjoy saltwater fishing, I am extremely disturbed by the newest round of mercury advisories. The latest advisory includes the best fish Florida has to offer: snook, redfish, gag grouper, pompano and flounder.
According to the National Wildlife Federation's report, "A Cycle of Harm," the largest contributors of mercury in our environment are coal-burning power plants. But mercury control technology is available now. The problem is the Bush administration's refusal to enforce the Clean Air Act by not requiring these coal-burning plants to clean up their act.
My grandchildren cannot safely eat a fish they caught along our precious coast! It is high time to fix this mess.
-- Martha Threlkeld, Bradenton
Mrs. Bush could find a better cause
Re: Mom e-mails for donations, May 9.
My first reaction upon reading that Barbara Bush was soliciting money from a million donors via the Internet as her Mother's Day gift for her son, incumbent President George W. Bush (who has already accumulated close to $200-million for his re-election campaign) was both disbelief and disgust.
My second thought was that any such money that was raised would be better spent given to programs dedicated to helping working mothers trying to raise their children on low-paying jobs, or any number of other worthwhile causes benefiting mothers who, incidentally, are also proud of their children.
-- Florence M. Savoy, St. Petersburg
An enjoyable read
On Mother's Day I thoroughly enjoyed Jeff Klinkenberg's story about his mom (Mother's nature, May 9). He's by far the best writer on your staff or of any other paper in the area. I hope you will give him a lot more exposure to entertain all of us who love to grab hold of something that's really great to read.
I can't wait to get his new book, Seasons of Real Florida, to relive the good old days of my home state before the population explosion.
-- Owen S. Allbritton, Clearwater
A different conclusion on immunization
Re: How the vaccine scare started, May 8.
After reading Arthur Caplan's column, I felt obligated to report on the other side of the issue.
My son Ryan was developing as a normal baby until he received his MMR vaccination when he was 20 months old in 1993. Soon after that he stopped speaking, became extremely introverted and behaved totally unlike himself. Within a year he was diagnosed autistic.
According to the pediatrician I had at that time and research I have done since, mercury was a major ingredient used in Thimerosal, an additive and biological preservative used in multidose vials of the MMR vaccination. My son's symptoms align with mercury poisoning.
My son is now 13. I have been doing the physical and educational steps of the Doman Program for the last three years with him. He is also currently under a doctor's care receiving a supplement to remove the mercury he tested positive for in his body. With these actions my son's condition is improving.
I agree with Mr. Caplan that parents should speak to their doctors. They should also do research on both sides of the issue and make the decision they feel is best for their child.
But unlike Mr. Caplan, if I had to do it over again, I would never have gotten my son immunized.
-- Kitty Young, Clearwater
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