Despite glitch with electronic voting machines, all is well in Wilton Manors

By Robert Nolin
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted March 15 2006

 
Voters in Wilton Manors thought they were getting a little extra bang for their ballot Tuesday and experiencing an unpleasant d?j? vu of election meltdowns past.

After deciding on a mayor, two city commissioners and whether to build a new City Hall, voters were told by electronic voting machines, "You have voted for all." Some understandably thought the machines had recorded votes for all commission candidates. Were they reliving 2000 and 2002's disastrous elections, when voting went into overtime and ballots went missing?

  
"I was confused at first," said E.J. Ritter, 43. "I thought I had voted for all four commissioners."

City Manager Joseph Gallegos conceded there was a bit of ambiguity afoot. "When it says you voted for all, there is some confusion there," he said. Poll workers assured worried voters that the machines were properly recording ballots. The message was simply to inform voters they had cast ballots for all appropriate candidates.

"There is absolutely nothing to indicate it is recording votes incorrectly," Gallegos said.

"This is not a new situation," said Mary Cooney, spokeswoman for the Broward Supervisor of Elections. "When it says, `You have voted for all' the machine is telling the voter that they have voted for all the candidates they are allowed to vote for."

The same wording appeared on ballots in Hillsboro Beach and Lazy Lake, Cooney said, but no early concerns arose there. Cooney said the elections software manufacturer would fix the wording, but did not know when.