"If we had realized someone might have wanted to have them, we would have backed them up. Hindsight is 20/20."

August 1, 2001 4:13 PM

"If we had realized someone might have wanted to have them, we would have backed them up. Hindsight is 20/20." Did anybody think that the election board in Palm Beach County did everything they could to make themselves look like idiots? Think again. In preparation for spring primaries they've erased all of the machine counts from the 2000 elections. I think the above quote by Jeff Darter, information technology manager in Election Supervisor Theresa LePore's office, just goes that extra mile to show how completely out of touch and incompetent these people are...
posted by RevGreg (27 comments total)

That's one way to look at it. It's also possible that the records were intentionally destroyed to cover something else that Theresa LePore or her underlings screwed up.
posted by rcade at 4:51 PM on August 1, 2001

I imagine that a computer forensics guy could parse out what had been "destroyed." I also believe that an official office in the state has a regularly scheduled set time for purging machines and thus it is rather odd that it took place in that one office so soon after the highly contest election results. In other words, enough odd things to make me wonder if in fact it was not done to conceal things.
posted by Postroad at 4:57 PM on August 1, 2001

Maybe this IT guy is a complete dumbass, but every place I've ever worked in an IT department, we've kept backups upon backups. Lock boxes in the bank filled with backups. Snapshots of the servers every month, old tapes rotated out of the nightly backups, archives and duplicate archives of no-longer needed data. DDS-3, CD-ROM, DLT, floppies, printouts, whatever. Lots and lots of backups.

If yours is a data-intensive operation (and I think any elections office would count as such), you've got to have backups.

Plus, I don't care what kind of database they're using: it couldn't have been all that much data, relatively speaking. What, a gigabyte or less? It's all numbers, it's compressible. It'd probably all fit on a single backup tape.

The guy should clearly be fired, or else there's malice at work in that office...
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:15 PM on August 1, 2001

...the files were deleted so they wouldn't be confused with files from the March municipal election.

They're kidding, right?
posted by normy at 5:39 PM on August 1, 2001

It's also possible that the records were intentionally destroyed to cover something else that Theresa LePore or her underlings screwed up.

Very much a possibility. Although I didn't say it, I also meant that they would have to be "out of touch and incompetent" to think that the public would believe that anyone would assume that those results were unimportant. To me the statement is almost damning - I think the Palm Beach County 2000 election results may have been among the MOST important election results ever and I can't fathom how somebody who worked there during the election could think any different.

Christ, I flinch at erasing 8 month old e-mails that weren't all that important when I got them sometimes...
posted by RevGreg at 6:25 PM on August 1, 2001

The guy should clearly be fired

Good idea. That will clear his schedule for the ambassadorship he's got coming.
posted by Dirjy at 7:23 PM on August 1, 2001

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAhA
If we had known if anyone wanted them.......
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Yes, I agree, this guy is going to be an ambassador to the Cayman Islands or some other place like that.
He should have just said, whoopsie! oops! Hey! What does this key do?
Too funny
posted by a3matrix at 7:27 PM on August 1, 2001

Between this and the Katherine Harris computer erasings fiasco, I'm pretty darn glad that I live in Washington state, as far in the continental US that you can get from Florida. Jeez, I mean, what's up with those people!?
posted by hincandenza at 8:56 PM on August 1, 2001

hincandenza, Alaska isn't on the North American continent?

Just checking.
posted by D.C. at 10:58 PM on August 1, 2001

DC: Alaska certainly is, but the phrase "Continental United States" means the connected states.
posted by skyline at 12:26 AM on August 2, 2001

history is written and shredded by victors.
posted by will at 2:40 AM on August 2, 2001

It's also possible that the records were intentionally destroyed to cover something else that Theresa LePore or her underlings screwed up.

Damn those corrupt Republicans!! Damn them all to hell!!

...whoops.
posted by mikewas at 7:12 AM on August 2, 2001

Alaska certainly is, but the phrase "Continental United States" means the connected states.

pedantic

The correct term is "contiguous United States"

/pedantic

How long must we continue to rehash this election?
posted by briank at 7:25 AM on August 2, 2001

How long must we continue to rehash this election?

Until Bush gets kicked out of the White House...maybe even after that. Who knows? God forbid we should keep talking about one of the worst perversions of the democratic process that the United States has ever seen....

(sarcasm) Eh, who cares?....Big Brother 2 is on! (/sarcasm)
posted by thewittyname at 7:38 AM on August 2, 2001

Theresa LePore is a Democrat, right?

Also, I am not surprised by the ineptitude of the Palm Beach County IT staff. Government workers are underpaid, so you get what you pay for. Where I live a good NT SysAdmin will get $55-65K/year, whereas the same gov. position would pay $40-50K/year.
posted by internal at 7:38 AM on August 2, 2001

closing my italics, or attempting to....
posted by christina at 7:39 AM on August 2, 2001

italics off yeah!
posted by internal at 7:41 AM on August 2, 2001

Damn those corrupt Republicans!! Damn them all to hell!!

Funny, the Palm Beach County elections board is controlled by democrats - what could they possibly want to cover up? What amazes me is that anybody still thinks that only one side in this mess was playing dirty when it's painfully obvious that both sides were doing their best to optimize their advantages.

history is written and shredded by victors.

In this case it was shredded by the losers. Why? So they can continue to CLAIM that the other side cheated when there have been no convictions and just as much evidence that their side was playing games also.

I find it all just terribly amusing...
posted by RevGreg at 10:54 AM on August 2, 2001

RevGreg - Do a search for my past posts and turn off your sarcasm filter.

wittyname - the rehash will end either way in 2004. You know which way I think it will end.
posted by mikewas at 10:10 PM on August 2, 2001

God forbid we should keep talking about one of the worst perversions of the democratic process that the United States has ever seen...

Yes wittyname, it is unfortunate that the Constitution and the written laws in place when the election was held won out over the nebulous and undefined concept of "democratic process."

Do a search for my past posts and turn off your sarcasm filter.

I am familiar with your posts and quite enjoy them, I commenting on what you said, I did not mean them to be taken as criticism.

<apology>I hadn't had any coffee yet, I could nave done a better job!</apology>
posted by RevGreg at 2:30 AM on August 3, 2001

RevGreg,
As I understand the Constitution and the written laws in place, the Extreme Court was way out of line in interfering with the process. The Supreme Court is the ONE branch of federal or state government that has NO PLACE defined in the Constitution for interfering with elections. Should Florida be unable to resolve their problems the default process was for the Congress to decide, not Scalia.

"...there is no right to suffrage..." Antonin Scalia 12-12-2000
posted by nofundy at 7:17 AM on August 3, 2001

"...there is no right to suffrage..." Antonin Scalia 12-12-2000

There isn't according to the Constitution, why this line keeps getting repeated as some sort of damning evidence is beyond me. The Gore team was fighting for the sufferage of the right to vote for President and the Constitution does NOT provide one. Only state constitutions have provided the right to sufferage - they were in the wrong court.

The Supreme Court is the ONE branch of federal or state government that has NO PLACE defined in the Constitution for interfering with elections.

Actually, the only court that was out of order was the Florida Supreme Court which had no right to interfere with the decision of the Secretary of State and declare an extension to hand counts. The Supreme Court is, however, charged with upholding the provisions of the Constitution, one of which was violated - giving them every right to step in and overturn the Florida decision.

Should Florida be unable to resolve their problems the default process was for the Congress

The ONLY body in Florida which had the legal right to determine said resolution was the legislature, not the Florida Supreme Court, and that violation is the only reason that the Supreme Court got involved. The Supreme Court decided 7-2 that the Florida court was wrong in extending the Florida counts. What is so vague about that? That is Constitutional law...
posted by RevGreg at 6:05 PM on August 3, 2001

Actually, the only court that was out of order was the Florida Supreme Court which had no right to interfere with the decision of the Secretary of State and declare an extension to hand counts.

With all due respect, this statement is wrong. WRONG. Courts overrule state officials acting illegally all the time. ALL THE TIME. Courts interpret laws, filling in the gaps in legislations all the time. EVERY DAY, ALL THE TIME. The Florida Supreme Court did EXACTLY what it was supposed to do and did it admirably, and explained itself thoroughly. You You are non-informed regarding the American judicial system.
posted by ParisParamus at 6:21 PM on August 3, 2001

What is obvious is that Florida is a dangerous place. It is a state dominated by people more interested in leisure and retirement and vegetating and sun than intellectual activity. It's a very very very scary place. A little sunny outpost intended for a week or two of R&R has somehow been turned into an acultural monster which decided our nation's fate. STAY AWAY.
posted by ParisParamus at 6:27 PM on August 3, 2001

The Florida Supreme Court did EXACTLY what it was supposed to do and did it admirably, and explained itself thoroughly.

They explained themselves thoroughly? They missed the part where they somehow expunged Article II of the Constitution which sets the laws for FEDERAL elections - and which excludes them from acting.

Courts overrule state officials acting illegally all the time.

Which has exactly what to do with this? The Constitution gives ALL rights in federal elections to the legislature and the legislature gave certain rights to the Secretary of State - yet NO rights were conferred to the Florida Supreme Court. If it had been a STATE election, you'd be right - but this was a federal election which made the appeal ONLY legal if it was made through the state legislature (unless THEY had given that responsibility to the court, which they hadn't.) The state supreme court had NO legal right to override ANY decisions made.

Katherine Harris did not do ANYTHING illegal - in fact, as upheld by the Supreme Court, she was the ONLY entity who could LEGALLY extend the counts and she determined that it was not neccessary. Whether you agree with her decision or not, it was perfectly legal and binding. Don't like it? Lobby to change the process but don't bitch about the process in retrospect.

You are non-informed regarding the American judicial system.

And you are uninformed on Constitutional law in reference to federal elections - which is much more relevant here.
posted by RevGreg at 9:41 AM on August 4, 2001