Katherine’s Kurse
Cruella de Harris rise to prominence was because of a suspect election, and now the election to replace her is mired in controversy.
CBS carries the Associated Press report, Deja Vu: Another Florida Recount Likely
The touch-screen voting machines Katherine Harris championed as secretary of state after the 2000 presidential recount may have botched this year’s election to replace her in the U.S. House, and it’s likely going to mean another Florida recount.
More than 18,000 Sarasota County voters who marked other races didn’t have a vote register in the House race, a rate much higher than the rest of the district, elections results show.
Republican Vern Buchanan has a 373-vote lead over Democrat Christine Jennings, less than 0.2%. Anything less than 0.5% generates an automatic recount, which is meaningless with touch screen machines.
More information in the local Herald-Tribune story, and the raw data from the Sarasota County elections office.
My guess is that the race wasn’t visible in the ES&S machines. You may have had to scroll down to find it. That is based on looking at the numbers for absentee ballots [on paper ballots], and comparing it to early and election day voting on the machines.
It would appear a poorly designed ballot can occur on machines as easily as punch cards. “Nothing is foolproof: fools are too ingenious.”
2 comments
One of Murphy’s ‘lesser known laws’ – Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
And that goes double for the designers of these blasted touch screen machines.
There should be one item per screen, and an approval before you move to the next screen. It’s basic interface design.