Miami-Dade commissioners, determined to make 2004 a trouble-free voting year, rebuked the new elections supervisor.
By Associated Press
Published July 31, 2004
MIAMI - Miami-Dade County elections officials said Friday they have found detailed electronic records from the 2002 gubernatorial primary that were thought to have been lost in computer crashes last year.
"The data has been located on a compact disc that was in the files of the election office," said Seth Kaplan, spokesman for the office of Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan. "We are very pleased."
It had been thought the records were lost in computer crashes in April and November of 2003.
Seth Kaplan said the backup disc was likely misplaced due to transition in the office in the past year. Constance Kaplan took over as elections supervisor in July 2003.
The loss was discovered when the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition requested all data from the 2002 gubernatorial primary after a study by the American Civil Liberties Union stated 8 percent of the votes on the county's touch screen machines were lost.
The coalition wants to analyze the data for any proof of problems during the primary. Janet Reno lost the Democratic nomination to Bill McBride on a day when polls opened late and closed early in Miami-Dade and where there were problems operating the new machines.
"Hopefully the analyzing of that data may help uncover why the machines have this phenomenon of undervotes and may suggest ways to address that problem," said Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida ACLU. "If that data were lost, we would not have that ability to address that problem and try to fix it."
Defenders of touch screen systems say it is impossible to determine how many people may have gone to the polls intending to vote but, seeing the choices on the screen, decided not to cast a ballot in a particular race, thereby being recorded as an undervote.
A team from the state Division of Elections came to Miami this week to work with local officials to see what happened to the seemingly lost data and whether the information was retrievable. Seth Kaplan said it was Miami-Dade officials who found the disc.
Gov. Jeb Bush is "pleased they were able to retrieve the data," spokesman Jacob DiPietre said.
Friday afternoon with Constance Kaplan to express their concern over the audit data problem and how future problems might affect voter confidence.
"We don't intend to be the laughingstock of the world this year for this election," said chairwoman Barbara Carey-Schuler. "We will not tolerate a circus-like election and we will not tolerate the debacles we have had in the past."
Florida law requires ballot records from elections for state and local offices to be kept for a year. Records for federal races must be kept for 22 months after an election is certified.
Some local activists expressed skepticism over the newly found information.
"There are now more questions than before," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition. "I certainly want the disc; I certainly wish someone would test the original disc they are now claiming they found and determine when that disc was made, where it came from, whether it's been tampered with and if anyone's opened it."
