(FL) State will audit March 7 elections

March 17, 2006

State regulators will audit elections held March 7 in Largo, Pinellas Park and Palm Harbor that were delayed when a computer server froze, stopping the vote count for two hours.

The decision by the Division of Elections comes after Deborah Clark, Pinellas County's supervisor of elections, sent a letter Wednesday asking the state for the review.

"The election results are accurate," Clark wrote. "However, baseless allegations have been made that were designed more to discourage rather than to enlighten voters, and we feel that a state audit is needed to reassure the public."

The move pleases Bob Jackson, who lost the Largo mayor's seat in the election to City Commissioner Pat Gerard, who bested Jackson by 172 votes out of 6,290 cast. He does not dispute the results, but said an audit is warranted.

"It's well overdue," Jackson said. "There's too much uncertainty surrounding the whole thing."

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/03/17/Northpinellas/State_will_audit_Marc.shtml

Interesting that the state will audit this election but according to the law we are not allowed to recount votes? I wonder what the difference is?

:shrug:

From the article:

The election snagged because a technician set aside too little hard drive space on the server to handle the vote tabulation. A consultant from Sequoia Voting Systems, Pinellas' voting technology provider, passed along some computer code to the technician while he was fixing the problem.

That caught the eye of the Voting Integrity Alliance of Tampa Bay, a group critical of the touch screen voting technology the county uses. Members, who advocate using paper ballots, questioned whether the use of the code compromised the voting system.

snip


This little sleeper of a story may end up being a BIG turn of events for FL, IMHO.

If I understand it correctly, Florida law PROHIBITS paper ballots being recounted.

So they'll push a button on the machine and ask it to re-annoint a winner.

why they are allowing an 'audit'? They usually fight this sort of thing tooth and nail.

Why didn't Kerry or Gore ask for audits?