Several touch-screen machines show glitches

By Henry A. Stephens staff writer for Scripps and TCPalm News
August 12, 2004

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Four touch-screen voting machines had to be re-programmed in a routine test Wednesday because of minor copying glitches, county Elections Supervisor Kay Clem said.

But voters needn't be concerned, Clem said, because the problems that cropped up were connected only to copying the cartridge that contains the ballot data and totals — something that doesn't happen on Election Day.

"It was just like dubbing a tape," Clem said.

The glitches were noticed as Steve Demers, Clem's computer systems analyst, conducted an audit of 10 machines for the county Canvassing Board and other observers.

At one point, the screens on four of the machines flashed a notice that the cartridges weren't acceptable, County Commission District 5 Democratic candidate Renee Renzi said.

"(Demers) had to take the cartridges to a back room to re-program them," Renzi said.

Clem said she makes copies of original ballot cartridges and has those copies loaded in the machines used in the public tests so that the originals can stay in the machines bound for the precincts.

She said she didn't understand why four of the duplicates were blank and didn't record data from the originals, but said Demers successfully copied them on a second try and the machines then passed the test.

Clem said her staff has already tested 360 of the county's 420 machines and said they passed.

Renzi said she still doesn't trust the machines, but said she doesn't trust computers in general.

"You can never get all the bugs out," she said. "I would rather go back to paper ballots with black grease pencils."

She said she plans to cross her fingers when she votes.