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Voting wrongs

SP Times: Even with new chief, election doubts linger

Critics complain that new touch screen voting machines lack a paper trail for manual recounts, a glitch in some machines was fixed only recently, and thousands of petitions have been sent to the state urging a return to paper ballots.

And Saturday, Secretary of State Glenda Hood abruptly abandoned a flawed list of thousands of potential felons who could have been removed from the voter rolls.

Like Harris four years ago, Hood now finds herself standing alongside Gov. Jeb Bush at the center of another election controversy.

"The idea that we should trust Gov. Bush or Mrs. Hood with our right to vote is an unrealistic expectation," said U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, who unsuccessfully sued the state to try to force it to create a paper trail for recounts and is appealing. "It's a pattern of deception and a pattern of purposeful actions to prevent certain Floridians who vote Democratic from voting. This is Jim Crow in Florida in 2004. George Wallace would be proud."

Mrs. Hood stands by the long and illustrious track record of Florida’s new voting equipment:

"We've taken steps to make sure we have the best technology available today," Hood said. "It has delivered successful elections since 2002."

Hmmm... perhaps Mrs. Hood meant to say “It has delivered successful elections, with the exception of some minor software glitches, since 2002...”?

In yet another Florida election blunder, officials in Broward County misplaced more than 100,000 ballots cast in this week's election.

Officials said the amended totals did not change the result of any races.

The county elections office discovered 103,222 votes Wednesday that had not been counted although officials had said 100 percent of the precincts were included in Tuesday night's results.
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Broward deputy elections supervisor Joe Cotter called Tuesday's mistake "a minor software thing."