120 Broward vote machines pass test

Broward officials say 120 voting machines passed a state-mandated test Friday, but some activists are skeptical.

By JEANNETTE RIVERA-LYLES   Miami Herald   16 October 2004

A sample of 120 Broward County voting machines performed flawlessly on Friday during a state-mandated accuracy test, election officials said.

But voting-rights activists are not impressed. Each machine processed just one ballot, and the critics say that hardly makes for real election day conditions.

Broward Mayor Ilene Lieberman called the tests a success.

''Everything checked out,'' she said. ``There were no errors anywhere. I'm confident the equipment will work perfectly on Election Day.''

Officials randomly chose 120 machines, out of the county's 6,020, because state law mandates testing of 2 percent of the equipment before the Nov. 2 election.

''The results were perfect,'' said Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes.

Ellen Brodsky, a Coconut Creek voting activist, disagreed.

''This does not represent in any way, shape or form an election day scenario,'' she said. ``The conditions are also completely different. There are no volunteers here in charge of operating the machines, for instance.''

Observing the test results were representatives of the Kerry-Edwards campaign, the Kerry-Edwards legal team, and of the Democratic National Committee. They were satisfied but not impressed by Friday's accuracy test.

''We're more concerned about people being denied the right to vote for other reasons,'' said Mike Moskowitz, a member of the Kerry legal team. ``We're going to be vigilant in case there are individuals being turned away because they don't have a voter's card, or a picture ID, or because they wrongly appear on a felon's list.''

The legal team, Moskowitz said, is assembling a group of 250 to 300 lawyers in Broward to patrol voting sites to advocate for people's ``right to vote.''

No Bush staffers signed in at the testing site. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1 in Broward.