Florida Voting: What, Me Worry? By Geniusofdespair

Reporter Curtis Morgan in a departure from Environmental columns, reported a cover story: New voting system not quite goof-proof.

With nightmares of hanging chads still dancing in my head, I noticed way into the article there was a startling revelation that scared me to death for the 2008 election:

“In Palm Beach, meanwhile, the legal battle over the judicial race forced yet another limited recount last week. In a test a judge ordered Wednesday, two tabulators sorting just 262 ballots still being contested spit out different results..”

How could this be? Just 262 stinking ballots and the two tabulating machine could not get the same tally twice? Boy are we in trouble if Florida is again the epicenter of the Presidential election.

You will remember I previously reported on this Judge race Sept. 7th referring to a Carl Hiaasen column:

Carl Hiaasen take the elections department in Palm Beach to task. They have lost thousands of ballots in a close election for a judge race during the August 26th primary. It was found out during the mandatory recount:

“One little problem: 3,478 ballots had disappeared between the election and the retabulation.”

Carl ponders what this will mean for the upcoming presidential election:

“So a cloud of culpability hangs over Florida. What happened here in 2000 put George W. Bush in the White House, and it all started in Palm Beach County.

Two months isn't enough time for those knuckleheads to figure out how to count and recount in an orderly way. Only about 12 percent of the county's 804,000 registered voters went to the polls on Aug. 26. Almost two weeks later, the scavenger hunt for their ballots drags on.”