Dent knew of potential problems last August
March 13th, 2007 by max linsky in Politics
According to this story by Melinda Henneberger on Huffington Post, the manufacturer of the electronic voting machines used in the infamous District 13 race told Dent and others in Florida before the election that there may be a malfunction:
WASHINGTON – Last August, Election Systems & Software sent Florida election officials a letter informing them of a glitch in their electronic voting equipment — a problem that should be fixed before Election Day in November “to avoid any potential issues at the polls.”
Instead, the problem was ignored, said Sam Hirsch, a lawyer for Democratic congressional candidate Christine Jennings, who has petitioned the court and the Congress for a new election in Katherine Harris’s old district in Sarasota.
Kathy Dent, Sarasota Supervisor of Elections, confirmed in a phone interview today that the manufacturer’s recommendation was disregarded, and no action taken: “No one in the State of Florida updated” the equipment after receiving the letter, she said, “and that’s because it was too close to the election. It was a state decision that it was too late to make changes.”
Dent says the glitch had no bearing on those pesky 18,000 undervotes. Hirsch disagrees. He told Henneberger that the problem “matches the reports we got from voters.”
I spoke to Jennings a few weeks back — she’s still fighting and is convinced she’ll get a recount. If this story keeps refusing to die, she might just be right.
March 13th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
I think we are ignoring the obvious fix – job sharing.
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:19 am
While we’re at it, why not re-count Bush-Gore 2000. Other possible re-counts could include Humphry-Nixon “68, and Kennedy-Nixon ‘62. After these re-counts are finished, it would be cool to see the losing side demand another re-count — then the side that came out on the losing end of that re-re-count could challenge the outcome all the way to the Supreme Court.
I almost forgot Bush-Kerry 2004, and their controversial Ohio primary result. A re-count is definitely in order there.
Here in Florida, it’s good that we not longer use the “punch cards” that we used in the 2000 Presidential election, and I hope that we will no longer use the “touch screen ” machines that were used in the 2006 election.
Whatever the next method of voting is, if my side doesn’t come out on top –I wanna recount!
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:33 am
Jack, I voted for Jennings, so you might think this tainted, but I want to simply find out what happened, even if we agree beforehand that regardless of the outcome, we won’t retroactively remove Buchanan and install Jennings. Why is that ridiculous? Isn’t it worth taking the time and money to get it right next time?
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I thought we did find out what happened. The computers worked flawlessly.
However, the design of the ballot was confusing to some — just like some people were confused in Bush-Gore — they thought that voting for both candidates counted as a vote for Gore — or that pushing a chad all the way through for Bush, and partially the way through for Gore counted as a vote for Gore.
January 20th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Jack said:”The computers worked flawlessly”
Where on earth did you hear that?
Are you joking or some kind of repub-a-bot?
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:53 am
Thanks for checking out our Dent coverage, Texxs; can you believe she got re-elected?