Voting machines put to the test

By Jeremy Milarsky
Staff Writer South Florida Sun Sentinel
Posted August 14 2004

FORT LAUDERDALE · With a group of critics and concerned politicians watching, a team of volunteers on Friday tested a sampling of Broward County's relatively new touch-screen voting machines in preparation for the Aug. 31 primary election.

The machines worked perfectly, said Broward Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes.

But part of the concern over Florida's ATM-style voting machines is not only whether they work well, but whether people are comfortable using them.

At Friday's testing, performed at the Supervisor of Elections warehouse on Southwest Sixth Street, a group of politicians and activists gathered to watch the test and, in some cases, ask pointed questions about their accuracy.

Ellen Brodsky, a representative of elections watchdog Web site www.verifiedvoting.org, interrupted Friday's meeting of the Broward canvassing board, calling for the use of paper ballots in the fall elections. The canvassing board is responsible for certifying elections results after the polls close and, in Friday's case, signing off on what is called a "logic and accuracy" test.

County officials tested 2,190 ballots, most of them paper absentees. Between Democratic ballots, Republican ballots and all the different county and state districts in Broward County, elected officials will be dealing with 151 ballot types. All of them were tested Friday.

A team of voters and observers tested 120 of the 2-year-old machines, and no one tested a machine without another person present.

Such tests are routine and usually not attended by anyone but county elections officials, said Dan Lewis, a political consultant who showed up at the supervisor's warehouse Friday.

"This is rare," he said, as Brodsky was having a heated discussion with Snipes.

Miles away in Miami-Dade County, officials conducted a similar test of their voting machines. Officials tested 212 touch-screen machines with 222 ballot styles. Election Supervisor Constance Kaplan reported no problems as of late Friday afternoon.

Like some others in the Florida body politic, Brodsky favors a statewide paper ballot system, by either using optical-scan machines where voters mark their choice on the ballot with a pencil or by equipping the touch-screen machines with printers.

"We want to have a voter-verified paper record," she said.

But in Tallahassee, an aide for Secretary of State Glenda Hood defended the touch-screen machines, saying paper receipts are not necessary and most of the problem comes from voters not being used to the new voting technology.

"I think there's been an unprecedented effort on the part of the state of Florida [to educate voters]," Hood spokeswoman Alia Faraj said. "We lead the nation in election reform."

Staff writer Tania Valdemoro contributed to this report.