Miami-Dade elections officials find lost 2002 voting data

RACHEL LA CORTE

Associated Press

 

MIAMI - Miami-Dade County elections officials said Friday they have found detailed electronic records from the 2002 gubernatorial primary that were originally believed lost in computer crashes last year.

"The data has been located on a compact disk that was in the files of the election office," said Seth Kaplan, spokesman for the office of Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan. "We are very pleased."

When the loss was initially reported earlier this week, state officials had stressed that no votes were lost in the actual election. The record of those votes had been believed lost during the crashes in April and November of 2003. Officials had initially said they believed the first crash happened in May.

Seth Kaplan said that backup disk was likely misplaced due to transition in the office within the past year. Constance Kaplan took over as elections supervisor in July 2003.

The information was discovered missing when the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition requested all data from the 2002 gubernatorial primary after a study by the American Civil Liberties Union found that 8 percent of the votes on the county's touchscreen machines were lost.

The group wants to analyze the county's data for any proof of problems during that contested Democratic primary. Janet Reno lost to Bill McBride on a day when polls opened late and closed early in Miami-Dade and where there were problems operating the new machines.

"Hopefully the analyzing of that data may help uncover why the machines have this phenomenon of undervotes and may suggest ways to address that problem," said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. "If that data were lost, we would not have that ability to address that problem and try to fix it."

But backers of touchscreens say it is impossible to determine how many people may have intentionally gone to the polls but declined to vote in the primary, thereby not recording a vote and causing an "undervote." An undervote happens when someone is recorded as not making a choice in a particular race.

Fifteen of Florida's 67 counties spent millions buying the touchscreen computers after the disputed 2000 presidential election caused by problems with the old punchcard systems. On the new systems, voters make their ions by touching a computer screen showing the candidates. The computer then tabulates the votes.

Election reform groups have called for random testing of both touchscreen and optical scan machines during the state's Aug. 31 primary.

But state officials said an audit isn't necessary because the machines already undergo rigorous testing by state and county election officials.

"Touchscreen systems have worked successfully in hundreds of elections since 2002 and we expect them to do the same in the upcoming election," said Alia Faraj, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who oversees the state's elections.

Some local activists expressed skepticism over the newly found information.

"There are now more questions than before," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition. "I certainly want the disk, I certainly wish someone would test the original disk they are now claiming they found and determine when that disk was made, where it came from, whether it's been tampered with and if anyone's opened it."

Rodriguez-Taseff said she was immediately putting in a freedom of information request for the information.

County officials had said they did not have a systemwide backup system in place until December.

A team from the state Division of Elections was brought down to Miami earlier this week to work with local officials to see what happened and whether the information was retrievable. Seth Kaplan said officials from the machine vendor, Election Systems & Software Inc., were also in the office, though he said it was Miami-Dade officials who found the disk.

A county commission was set for Friday afternoon with Miami election officials to discuss what happened.

Gov. Jeb Bush is "pleased they were able to retrieve the data," spokesman Jacob DiPietre said.

"It's extremely important that supervisors of elections maintain the appropriate backup systems," DiPietre said.

Florida law says ballot records from elections for state and local offices must be kept for a year. The records for federal races must be kept for 22 months after an election is certified.

Faraj said it should be standard procedure for counties to backup data. The state sent a letter to all elections supervisors Wednesday asking that they confirm in writing that they have proper maintenance of their files.

Counties reached by The Associated Press this week said they do have backups, most with two or three different types of redundancy.

Officials with Election Systems & Software did not immediately return phone calls Friday.