General Elections in South Florida were a success and played out with only a minor glitches yesterday. With the eyes of the most of the country on
Florida for this upcoming presidential elections and controversy around Florida voting methods, the new touch screen voting system was a success in
the eyes of Floridians. The new system proved to be easy to use and there were no long lines at the various polling locations. But even with the
apparent success of this general election, concerns still remain about November's elections.
www.miami.com
While South Florida has conducted numerous successful elections on the electronic voting equipment since it was purchased in 2002, this year's
presidential election has drawn an unprecedented beam of focus to the new machines -- and South Florida's ability to use them correctly.
The increased attention smoked out technological problems and prompted officials to take last-minute measures to help ensure votes are counted
accurately in the absence of a paper trail.
Undoubtedly, early voting and an increased use of absentee ballots reduced the numbers that voted Tuesday in the polling places.
The biggest fear -- that Miami-Dade would relive the disastrous 2002 gubernatorial primary -- clearly did not come to pass. In that election, long
boot-up times and poor poll worker training set off a chain of events that left some precincts closed for hours and disenfranchised untold numbers of
voters.
On Tuesday, Burgess said voting problems were ''so minor and so isolated'' that they were barely worth noting. The few that cropped up were mostly
human error, he said, and quickly resolved.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
Knowing that the system now works, it's imperative to see the how the human factor will play into the elections since all eyes will be watching
Florida once again.
[edit on 10-13-2004 by worldwatcher]
