E-voting May Face Recall in Florida County
IT snafus lead to look at optical scanning
 

News Story by Marc L. Songini

APRIL 18, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Ongoing technical glitches are prompting election officials in Florida's Miami-Dade County to consider scrapping a $25 million investment in electronic voting systems.

Infamous for the hanging-chad controversy in the disputed 2000 presidential election, Miami-Dade now uses touch-screen technology from Omaha-based Election Systems & Software Inc. that were installed in 2002 to replace its punch-card machines. But coding errors by county personnel caused the iVotronic systems to undercount votes in five local elections, with a boiling point reached in a countywide March 8 special election.

The latest snafu in which a glitch caused hundreds of votes to be uncounted, prompting the subsequent resignation of county elections supervisor Constance Kaplan left Miami-Dade officials considering a possible switch to optical scanning equipment.

Officials said the miscount didn't influence the result of last month's election.

However, "if you talk to a number of people, they have lost confidence and are cynical about whether their votes count," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez. "That has to be changed. We need to do something where we can restore the confidence of the people in the electoral process. That boils down to the equipment. The equipment is problematic."

He also emphasized that "people want some sort of backup, a hard copy on paper," which is unavailable with the touch-screen machines.

With backing from Alvarez, County Manager George Burgess on April 4 issued a memorandum instructing newly appointed Supervisor of Elections Lester Sola to undertake a comprehensive review of the county's voting-related processes, including the way it manages system coding and staff training.

Burgess also urged Sola to "assess the desirability and feasibility of replacing the county's touch-screen electronic voting system with an optical scan system."

In adjacent Broward County, which also uses iVotronic machines, optical scanning would have been preferable from the start of electronic voting, said Mayor Kristin Jacobs.

The optical gear might have been considered after the 2000 election debacle, she noted, but the state's 2002 deadline to automate voting systems left county officials scrambling to meet the timetable rather than taking time to carefully evaluate all options.

Budgetary constraints the county has already spent $17 million on the new systems now prevent it from replacing the new e-voting machines with optical scanners, Jacobs said.

She added that she is now pushing to get the state's approval to use printers with the touch-screen machines.

Sola said Miami-Dade's problems resulted from human errors. The e-voting equipment "is working as required," he said. Nevertheless, optical technology could cut costs and would provide hard-copy records of votes.

The punch-card-based system cost $1 million to $2 million per election. The iVotronic system, which includes 7,200 machines, cost $6.6 million in the November election. Part of that cost was the result of having to transport the machines back and forth securely to the voting precincts, which required temporary help and trucks.

Some estimates put the cost of installing optical scanning equipment between $3 million and $10 million, but Sola said that would likely be cheaper than buying 7,200 printers at about $1,300 apiece for the iVotronic machines.

Explaining why Miami-Dade didn't turn to optical scanning equipment in the first place, Sola said officials viewed it as just a newer variation of the faulty punch-card technology because it included paper. "We've learned a lot," he said. "It's healthy to look at options."

For its part, iVotronic vendor ES&S emphasized that responsibility for the coding errors lie with the county itself. "ES&S values our relationship with Miami-Dade County and [is] very proud of the work we have done together over the years to greatly enhance the county's voting process," the company said in an e-mail statement.

Sola is due to deliver a report on his review of the voting process to the county manager on May 27.