MetaFilter posts tagged with voting and Florida

Another Great Compromise may be in order.

Avenger — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 20:45:54 -0800

Today the DNC voted "to strip Florida of all its presidential convention delegates, threatening to leave the state without a vote for the party's 2008 nominee unless it delays the date of its presidential primary election." [More Inside]

But each time he hit the button next to the candidate, the Republican choice showed up.

amberglow — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:46:50 -0800

Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist. ...A poll worker then helped Rudolf, but it took three tries to get it right, Reed said. ... Broward Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Mary Cooney said it's not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly. ... Early voting problems already in Florida.

In sworn affidavit, programmer says he developed vote-rigging prototype for Florida congressman; Congressman’s office silent

jackspace — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 18:10:25 -0800

In sworn affidavit, programmer says he developed vote-rigging prototype for Florida congressman; Congressman’s office silent - Will this go the way of the Wayne Madsen report? Perhaps this is, as some have noted, just another Rovian Hit. At this point in time, I keep my tinfoil hat ready. Even if it were true, I doubt the Republican-majority-ed House and Senate are can hardly be expected to investigate themselves. For now, I just keep laughing at HERCUBUSH (Quicktime) (Real) and trying to convince myself that we are all in Bush now.

Did Lightning Strike Twice in Florida?

jonp72 — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:35:01 -0800

Florida is the New Florida Although many discussions of voting anomalies focused on Ohio, a statistical analysis of Florida voting patterns performed by sociologists at University of California, Berkeley suggests that electronic touch screen voting in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade may have credited George Bush with up to 260,000 extra votes in Florida. The discrepancy is not enough to change who won Florida, but it could have narrowed Bush's lead to 90,000 votes instead of 350,000, highlighting the need for better auditing of elections with electronic voting.

And so it starts...

Steve_at_Linnwood — Sat, 23 Oct 2004 10:13:12 -0800

SEIU union and other Democratic groups have been holding rallies at early voting locations in Palm Beach County, where they have a captive audience of voters standing in line. Normally campaign workers can not come with in 50 feet of polling places, but apparently that rule does not apply to this year's new Early Voting in Florida.
One woman who voted early in Boca Raton, at the Southwest County Regional Library, complained that as she stood in line, two men behind her were "trashing our president," Fletcher said, declining to identify the woman. She tried to ignore them. Then the man touched her arm and said, "Who are you voting for?"

"I said, `I don't think that's an appropriate question,'" the woman said she responded.

"Uh oh! We have a Bush supporter here," screamed the man behind her.

For the 2 1/2 hours she had to wait in line, she was heckled by the man. As they neared the voting room, someone in the rear of the line yelled, "I sure hope everyone here is voting for Kerry!" she reported.

That's when the man behind her held his hand over her head and screamed, "We have a Republican right here!" There were "boos and jeers" from the crowd.

BOHICA!

black8 — Mon, 16 Aug 2004 14:45:40 -0800

Is the GOP tampering with Florida elections? The New York Times reports that State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November. Also, see here and here. Why do we even put up with this?

paper trail NOW paper trail NOW paper trail NOW

troutfishing — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 11:00:16 -0800

Florida county loses 2002 E-voting records in computer crash Ooooops. Do your Congresspeople and Senators support verified voting ? - Check the VerifiedVoting.org database (verifiedvoting.org previously mentioned here) to see if your political reps support H.R.2239 and S.1980, the tandem bills before the U.S. House and Senate which would mandate paper-trail voting. "Electronic miscounts of votes are a fact, not a theory...Technologists warn that electronic voting machines are flawed. They say we should "trust but verify." " Others disagree....with Democracy.

baylink — Fri, 08 Nov 2002 10:11:47 -0800

I'm amazed. (And no, this isn't a Lone Star thread.) For all the politics fuss we've engaged in over the last 2 years, I'm a bit surprised that no one thought it a fit topic for discussion that Florida lost 100,000 votes this week. In Broward County. But of course, those are the *only* votes we lost track of, right...?

maud — Tue, 05 Nov 2002 07:40:56 -0800

Florida Machine Records Votes for Wrong Candidate. OK, I know Matt Drudge isn't exactly a venerated news outlet, but he is in South Florida. And he's reporting that a West Palm Beach voter called in to a South Florida radio talk show to report that when he voted for McBride this morning the machine counted his vote for Bush. After he'd tried three times, the voter said, an observing poll worker finally acknowledged that the machine would have to be reprogrammed, since earlier voters had experienced the same problem. There is no official confirmation of this problem, but calls to the same radio show two years ago evidently foreshadowed the 2000 election debacle. I'll be keeping an eye on sites like Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo as the day wears on. In the end, what should the electorate do (in addition to initiating lawsuits) if outcome-determining irregularities surface in yet another Florida election?

mkultra — Thu, 12 Sep 2002 08:24:32 -0800

Another election debacle in Florida. One year and $30m in technology later, the Reno/McBride primary is marred by late openings and other assorted and sundry glitches. I know, it's a CNN link, but I can't resist anything that includes someone delivering the grade "F-minus-minus-minus" (later determined to be merely an "F-minus-minus" and some Drambuie). Any personal voting horror stories from our Florida contingent? Will the state become a case study in how "throwing money at the problem" never works?

benjh — Tue, 10 Sep 2002 16:55:59 -0800

Florida just might screw it up again, with problems voting state-wide, with concentrations in the southern portion of the state. With the fame of the Reno vote, along with the controversial gay rights issue on the ballot, can they afford to screw this up? And if they do, what next? More lawsuits?

XQUZYPHYR — Sat, 31 Aug 2002 09:49:11 -0800

Florida to settle 2000 election lawsuit. Major provisions include a promise for massive reforms in voter registration, voter-roll maintenance and polling practices, as part of the lawsuit pushed by the NAACP. Granted, it's good that a large angered group is "getting over it" as many (even on this board) have still been explaining, but should skeptics (read: Democrats) such as myself read the Florida legislature's desire to settle as a sign that they may not have thought they would have won against charges of rigging the election?

owillis — Tue, 05 Jun 2001 01:09:22 -0800

It's simple: Don't let the blacks vote, your guy "wins". "Florida's conduct of the 2000 presidential election was marked by "injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency" that unfairly penalized minority voters, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has concluded in a report that criticizes top state officials -- particularly Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris -- for allowing disparate treatment of voters."

"A computer analysis by The Post showed that the more black and Democratic a precinct, the more likely it was to suffer high rates of invalidated votes."

"No inquiry so far has been as broad as that conducted by the commission -- or as specifically focused on the rights of minorities. The commission held three days of hearings, interviewed 100 witnesses and reviewed 118,000 documents."

swanson — Sun, 25 Feb 2001 08:59:18 -0800

If the election left you with an odd feeling that something was not right in Florida, you're not alone.

tomplus2 — Thu, 18 Jan 2001 15:02:59 -0800

"until every vote is coutned" : A review of 10,600 previously uncounted ballots in Miami-Dade County showed George W. Bush gaining six more votes than Al Gore.

aaron — Tue, 09 Jan 2001 22:28:45 -0800

The latest iteration of the Great Chad Count of 2001 has been announced. Some news organizations finally announce specifics about their planned gang-recount. They'll pay a nonprofit firm to "inventory" the votes, but each news organization will decide separately what the results mean. And one paper is holding an entirely separate count of its own. Inside.com summarizes: "When the laborious process is completed in 8 to 10 weeks, look for an orgy of tea-leaf discernment as any news organization willing to share in the costs will be free to spin and analyze the results in any way they please."

Dean_Paxton — Sat, 30 Dec 2000 19:31:52 -0800

Media recount boosts Gore in Hillsborough County, FL I wish they would have recounted the whole state. Including the "undervotes."

ethmar — Tue, 05 Dec 2000 06:31:35 -0800

YASL: Yet another Salon link. This could be the smoking gun. Or just smoke. Judgement?

baylink — Mon, 20 Nov 2000 13:18:46 -0800

ELECTION: Live coverage of (what's left of) the Florida hearing. I heard a solution I could live with: machine recount all the Florida ballots, and hand count anything that bounces. Came from the Bush camp, surprisingly enough.

holgate — Sun, 19 Nov 2000 01:01:10 -0800

"The rules of this game were set by the people, underwritten by the people, financed or not." Yet another opportunity for the British Observer to put the US newspapers to shame, with an closely-argued, even-handed reflection on the fun in Florida. "The system, full of inefficiencies and coagulations, may stink, but it is also a system which belongs to the voters who now complain so shrilly about it."

tiaka — Sat, 11 Nov 2000 23:35:14 -0800

Ok, lastly - Why not hand-recount this?

aurelian — Sat, 11 Nov 2000 22:56:24 -0800

NY Times report on voting problems in Palm Beach "...some precinct workers said that they were under strict instructions to turn away people asking for voting assistance — mainly out of fear that it would slow down the voting. Louise Austin, a precinct worker in Boynton Beach, said she and other workers at her precinct turned away voters who besieged them with questions. "People were coming up to me," Ms. Austin said, "and I had to follow the directive — `Don't help anyone. Don't talk to anyone.' "

th3ph17 — Fri, 10 Nov 2000 17:12:11 -0800

"In other words, the odds are less than 1 in a billion that the original vote was a fair count." OJR asked Dr. Lynn Miller, a professor of communications and expert on statistics at the USC Annenberg School to comment on what she found at CNN.com regarding the Florida Situation.

jamescblack — Thu, 09 Nov 2000 12:56:39 -0800

There ARE 2,856 people who WOULD and DID vote for Buchanan once before. (for people who are whining about there not being 3000 people in Palm Beach who would vote for Buchanan)

lescour — Thu, 09 Nov 2000 11:13:00 -0800

Disenfranchised felons the difference in Florida. ITN has a story with some actually numbers.