Florida officials warned about BBV problems, but chose to ignore warning

Sarasota officials ignored warning about voting machines
St. Petersburg Times

The maker of the voting machines used in last fall's disputed Sarasota area congressional race warned state and county officials that voters might have trouble recording their votes but the company's advice for fixing the problem went unheeded.

And as the controversy swirled into another national debate about another troubled Florida election, state and county officials never told anyone about the company warning that some of its touch-screen machines could produce a seconds-long delay before recording votes.

An Aug. 15 letter from Election Systems & Software told state and county officials about "slow response times" in recording votes on some of its machines. The company said an "update to the firmware" was required and also suggested counties post signs and train poll workers and voters about the need to press firmly for several seconds to ensure that the machine properly recorded the vote.

Such is the level of arrogance of some election officials.

I have certainly been sympathetic to the problems faced by election officials in trying to do their jobs. They lack the expertise, have lots of people yelling at them, and while they get lots of grief if there is a screw up, they endure little praise when things go right.

But there is a group of election officials who ruin it all for the rest of them, and we see such a group in this story. Election officials who have nothing but contempt for voters, who worship at the altar of BBV and ignore all evidence, no matter how compelling, that the system has problems. And even when palliative measures are available, refuse to implement them since they believe doing so would imply admission of error.

ES&S told Sarasota they would have problems. They told them how to deal with the problem to insure accurate elections. But...

That never happened in Sarasota County.

And although state, county and company officials insist the accuracy of the vote counting was not in jeopardy, Pasco County got the same letter and chose not to use the 40 affected machines on Election Day in November.

"It wasn't any big deal," Sarasota Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent said Wednesday.

There you have it, straight from the horse's ass' mouth!

In all probability the wrong person was "elected" to office, but this is not a "big deal". Sit down and shut up, and take the congressmen WE decide you should have.

But the arrogant contempt isn't just found with one person, it is endemic in Florida.

County and state officials said Wednesday they did not question the company when it failed to bring forward an upgrade before the election because, despite the response delay, the machines were working properly.

"We weren't experiencing a problem," Dent said.

"There was no need to go to the vendor to change the systems that close to the election," said Sterling Ivey, spokesman for the state Division of Elections. "The elections were not in jeopardy."

I think the MASSIVE undervote proves your WERE experiencing problems, specifically your system was BROKEN and you were too intoxicated with your own magisterial superciliousness to be concerned with quaint customs like "fair elections".

A question for Sarasota voters: Why does this woman still have a job?