Voting machines pass Broward test

Broward's electronic voting equipment passed its first major tests before the Aug. 31 primary election.

BY ERIKA BOLSTAD

ebolstad@herald.com

 

Testing of Broward's electronic voting equipment went flawlessly Friday during a public yet hands-off review of the accuracy of the county's touch-screen machines before the Aug. 31 primary.

Such reviews have always been public, but Florida election officials have asked counties this year to shed even more light on the process to clear up voter doubts about electronic voting.

The tests, known as ''logic and accuracy'' reviews, require technicians to check 2 percent of the machines. The county's canvassing board then confirms that the votes they know were cast match the results spit out by the machines.

''The scenarios were run, they all checked out 100 percent,'' said Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes. ``I absolutely believe that voters will be able to vote with confidence.''

But the testing process in Broward was not nearly as transparent as in other South Florida counties despite a campaign by Secretary of State Glenda Hood to open the process to public scrutiny.

Unlike Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, where observers and television cameras were invited in to watch as election workers tested the machines, observers in Broward had to look through a window. The room was packed so tightly with the 120 machines being tested that it would be impossible to allow the public inside, Snipes said.

That left some people who were watching the process including two of Snipes' fellow candidates for the elections chief job doubtful about what they were seeing.

''You can almost conclude that the test was passed before it was run,'' said Steve Shin, a Republican who will face the winner of a three-way Democratic primary that includes Snipes. Suspended elections supervisor Miriam Oliphant and community activist Jamie Bloodworth are the other two.

And it's clear that Florida voters remain doubtful about electronic voting equipment.

A poll conducted this week by Quinnipiac University of Connecticut found that many Florida residents remain concerned that their votes won't be counted. Nearly one-third of Florida voters have ''deep concerns'' about the touch-screen voting machines, according to the poll.

And 43 percent said they were ''somewhat confident,'' while 30 percent said that they were ''not too confident'' or ''not confident at all'' in touch-screen machines.

''The public is screaming about a paper trail,'' said Ellen Brodsky, a Coconut Creek voting activist who was observing the Broward tests for the election watchdog group www.verifiedvoting.org. ``There has to be a verifiable record.''

The canvassing board, made up of two county commissioners and a county judge, listened patiently, but turned down requests from Brodsky and other activists who wanted to run their own comparison tests using paper ballots.

''State law has a specific process that we go by,'' said Broward County Attorney Ed Dion, who serves as a legal advisor to the canvassing board. ``Taking ballots from an outside source is not part of that and I would recommend against it.''

But during Miami-Dade's test Friday, activists were openly welcomed by the county elections office.

People attending the tests were invited to cast any votes they liked, on 16 of the machines, with scribes recording their choices by hand and video cameras shooting from above. Their choices were matched with the results recorded by the machines.

''They picked machines completely at random for the non-scripted testing,'' said Douglas Jones, a computer science professor at the University of Iowa hired as a consultant for the elections department. ``What I'm seeing here is some of the strongest preelection testing we've ever heard of.''

Some national advocacy groups have called on election officials nationwide to reassure the public on Election Day by using what's known as ``parallel testing.''

Elections officials would set up test machines in several precincts, and invite voters to cast ballots on the test machine. Observers would record people's votes.

Then, at the end of the day, they would verify that the votes they watched people cast matched the electronic results.

Miami-Dade officials are considering the tests, which have been conducted on electronic machines in California. Snipes has said she's intrigued, but unsure the county could pull off the logistics.