Florida New Headache

[flashl]

Voting Machines Giving Florida New Headache

It used to be that everyone wanted a Florida voting machine.

After the history-making presidential recount of 2000, Palm Beach County sold hundreds of its infamous Votomatic machines to memorabilia seekers, including a group of chiropractors in Arizona, the cable-news host Greta Van Susteren and the hotelier André Balazs. One machine ended up in the Smithsonian Institution. Dozens were transformed into pieces of contemporary art for an exhibition in New York.

But now that Florida is purging its precincts of 25,000 touch-screen voting machines - bought after the recount for up to $5,000 each, hailed as the way of the future but deemed failures after five or six years - no one is biting.

== snip ==

Florida is the biggest state to reject touch screens so sweepingly, and its deadline for removing them, July 1, 2008, is the most imminent. For the 15 counties that must dump their expensive systems, buy new optical-scan machines and retrain thousands of poll workers, hurdles abound.

Six counties still owe a combined $33 million on their touch-screen machines, which most bought hurriedly to comply with a new federal law banning punch-card and lever voting systems after the recount. Miami-Dade County alone must cast aside 7,200 touch-screen machines, for which it paid $24.5 million and still owes $15 million.

Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning is seeking buyers for the touch screens, but he will not even begin to recoup the counties' losses. Inquiries have come from a Veterans Affairs hospital in Miami, which hoped to convert some of the machines into "learning kiosks" for disabled patients, and the Century Village retirement community in Palm Beach County, which wanted them for condo association elections.
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[onethatcares]

1. I haven't seen the lever voting system, is that like

the slots at the Indian casinos? You pull the lever and take your chances.

[flashl]

2. In Florida, yes ...

Description of voting systems:

punch card: voters punch holes next to their selections on a paper ballot

mechanical lever: voters pull a machine lever to mark their choices

optical scan: voters fill in a machine-readable ballot

Direct-Recording Electronic Systems (DREs): voters use touch-screen or push-button machines

paper ballots: votes are marked on paper and counted by hand

[NutmegYankee]

3. No. Very reliable. I have no Idea why we had to replace them.

You moved the large lever to one side, which ensured a clear board and closed the curtains. You then select the candidates by flicking down smaller levers under that candidates name, and when down, move the large lever back over to record your votes. Doing this opened the curtains while resetting the board.

It's a tragedy that we replaced them. The error rate was low and they were easily tallied.