-Caveat Lector-
Voting-machine errors discovered 4 years ago
By George Bennett and Marc Caputo
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 8, 2000
Elections officials were alarmed by an "unusually high" number of
voters who had trouble punching their ballots for president on
Palm Beach County's newest type of voting machine.
Another chapter in the dimpled chad drama surrounding this year's
contested presidential election?
Actually, it happened four years ago.
Former Elections Supervisor Jackie Winchester said in a memo to
state elections officials after the 1996 presidential election
that the county had registered an unusual number of under-votes
in 10 precincts that used new Data Punch machines.
A Palm Beach Post analysis last month found that precincts using
Data Punch machines in this election had a 4.4 percent under-vote
rate, compared with a 1.5 percent rate on older, more expensive
Votomatic machines used elsewhere in the county. The Data Punch
machines accounted for nearly half of all 10,311 under-votes in
this year's election.
An under-vote is recorded when a voter skips a race or when the
perforated "chad" next to a candidate's name isn't detached
thoroughly enough to be read by a tabulating machine.
Under-votes and attempts to count them have become key issues in
Florida's close presidential race.
Winchester's memo doesn't name the 10 precincts, but she said
Thursday she believed they were the precincts with the highest
number of under-votes that year. Those precincts had a 16
percent under-vote rate in 1996.
The under-vote rate was 2.3 percent for the rest of the county in
that year's presidential race between President Clinton and Bob
Dole.
The 10 problem precincts used new Data Punch machines,
Winchester's memo said.
In one Palm Beach Gardens precinct that year, 416 ballots, or
22.6 percent, were under-votes.
The problem was addressed at the time by replacing styluses on
the machines. All the precincts saw marked drops in the rate of
undervotes, but five of the 10 did not use Data Punch machines
this year.
Winchester says she now thinks the under-vote problem went beyond
faulty styluses and resurfaced in some precincts during this
year's presidential race.
"I don't think the styluses were the problem. It think it's the
equipment," Winchester said Thursday. Winchester, who retired
shortly after the 1996 election, has said she believes the rubber
backing on Data Punch machines hardens and makes it more
difficult for voters to punch chads.
That theory is disputed by county elections officials and by
Election Data Corp., which makes the Data Punch machines.
Company officials could not be reached late Thursday. They have
said their machines are made of the same materials as Votomatics.
The rubber backings on both machines are cleaned of chads and
treated with a protective, silicone spray after each elections
cycle.
The company and county elections officials also have said
under-votes are the fault of voters and not the machines.
California's San Diego County and Cook County in Illinois both
use the Data Punch and have reported no serious problems.
The county's 1,700 Data Punch machines were all purchased while
Winchester was elections chief.
About two months before the 1996 election, Election Data Corp.
delivered 250 new Data Punch units for $24,000. Over the
previous eight years, the elections office had purchased 1,450
other Data Punches for $35,335, according to records provided by
the supervisor's office.
Since the 1996 election, the supervisor's office hasn't bought
anything else from the company.
Nor has it bought any extra styluses since a 1996 pre-election
purchase of 2,500 serrated-tipped models for $7,375. Styluses
are attached to most voting machines.
Since Theresa LePore took office in January 1997, her office has
bought only refurbished Votomatic machines. From September 1999
to June 1, 2000, LePore bought 470 Votomatics for $88,695.
Votomatics sell for about $190 apiece, while a Data Punch with a
Poll Star booth costs about $100.
Tony Enos, the voting systems manager who drove the Ryder truck
full of the county's ballots to Tallahassee last week, labeled as
"ridiculous" the suggestions by Al Gore's campaign lawyers that
under-votes can be caused by chad build-up in voting machines.
After hearing that argument during last Saturday's election
contest hearing in Tallahassee, Enos on Tuesday purposefully
stuffed thousands, maybe millions of chads, into a Votomatic and
a Data Punch.
He invited a reporter to vote and see if chad buildup posed a
problem. It didn't.
Enos said he doesn't know why the supervisor no longer buys the
less-expensive Data Punch machines, which some precincts prefer
because they're easier to set up, smaller and lighter than the
Votomatics.
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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