Glitch prompts touch screen fears
Still, elections officials say problems in Miami-Dade are about about how voting records are kept, not how votes are cast.
By TAMARA LUSH and ALEX LEARY
Published July 29, 2004
As state officials investigated missing touch screen election records in Miami-Dade County on Wednesday, elections supervisors in the Tampa Bay area expressed confidence in their systems.
Computer crashes last year destroyed data from the 2002 gubernatorial primary, leaving no way to audit the results.
But county officials didn't save the information to a disk or hard drive. Instead, it was stored on a server that crashed and wiped out the records.
Secretary of State Glenda Hood sent a representative to Miami-Dade County to investigate Wednesday but downplayed the significance of the problem.
"It doesn't have anything to do with how elections are run or anything to do with machines or votes," said Hood.
Fifteen of the state's largest counties use touch screen machines, serving about half the state's registered voters.
Wednesday, supervisors of elections in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, which use touch screen machines, said they store their data in a variety of ways.
Pinellas and Pasco use compact discs. Hillsborough uses an electronic tape and a hard drive.
Pasco Elections Supervisor Kurt Browning said Miami-Dade's problem should spur all supervisors to rethink how they store election data.
"Because that happened in Miami-Dade, does it mean it could happen in Pasco?" he said. "Absolutely. But I would like to think we have procedures in place that would keep that from happening."
Miami-Dade's missing information was an electronic voting record of everything that happens from the time the voting machine is turned on.
Despite the official assurances, the Miami-Dade problem renewed the fears of touch screen critics, who have complained that the machines do not leave a paper trail.
Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said losing the data means there is no record of possible problems in the 2002 gubernatorial primary, which was decided by 4,794 votes statewide.
The problem surfaced after the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition requested all the data from the 2002 gubernatorial primary between Democrats Janet Reno and Bill McBride.
Meanwhile, election reform groups want the state to audit touch screen voting machines in 15 counties - including Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough - citing the Miami-Dade problems.
"We're asking for clarity and accountability," said Sandy Wayland, legislative chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition. "It just seems that the more questions answered, the more questions we have."
The coalition also called for random testing of optical scan machines used by 52 Florida counties. But state officials, including Hood, say an audit isn't necessary because the machines already undergo rigorous testing.
The state does not have specific standards for storing electronic voting data, but Hood said she will address the matter with elections officials.
"We're also making sure all the supervisors across the state have that storage backup in place," Hood said.
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Tamara Lush can be reached at 727 893-8612 or lush@sptimes.com