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Dade Votes Were Possibly Lost In 2004 Election
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Michele Gillen
Reporting

(CBS4) DORAL Two years ago, our exclusive investigation "The Election Question" revealed serious flaws in one of the audit systems of Miami-Dade's electronic voting machines. The audit system is an internal back up record of the votes cast on any given machine.

We're told those problems have since been fixed and with good reason. It now appears that audit trail is more important than ever, as we have exclusively learned that very audit trail has uncovered some serious errors in early voting from 2004.

University of Miami Law professor, Martha Mahoney, an authority on voting machines, revealed her startling findings of her investigation into 2004's early voting, a time when machines are in use for an extended period, and potentially more vulnerable, say critics, to everything from security breaches to malfunctions.

"I am not surprised but I am horrified," said Mahoney.

In trying to square up vote tallies and audit data from ES&S IVotronic voting machines used in Miami Dade County for early voting in 2004, Mahoney found the results of some machines unaccounted for. She realized the numbers didn't match up.

Her inquiries led her to a document and some words that raised her worst fears.

GILLEN: It appears that three IVotronic units were ‘clear and tested’ in error on October 28, 2004.

MAHONEY: I was shocked. I was shocked. No one that I know of has identified machines being clear and tested in the middle of early voting.

Clear and tested means all ballots are d from the machine.

Those words appeared in the conduct of election report, which is mandated by Florida law to inform the state elections commission after every election of any problems. It was filed by former Miami Dade election supervisor Constance Kaplan.

All other incidents described in the report stated that no votes were lost, but on the clear and tested errors no mention is made of whether votes were d.

"I think it was the silence that really startled me the most," said Mahoney.

On Friday, we asked current Miami Dade Election supervisor Lester Sola about those clear and test errors, which occurred at the North Shore Library polling location in Miami Beach.

"What happened during the 2004 election at an early voting site, basically you had someone who did not follow procedures that the protocols that the department has today were not followed, so whatever instance took place in 2004, will never happen again in this election,” said Sola.

GILLEN: But in that instance those votes were d from 3 machines.

SOLA: It appears that in 2004 there was an early voting site that someone did not follow procedures and impacted that particular equipment. I don't know exactly what transpired. I wasn't there."

We requested the details of who erased the votes and under what circumstancers, and whether or not attempts were made to recover the votes. From Mahoney's analysis, at least some 100 votes were affected.

"Here is one of the vulnerability of early voting some of the machines had close to1000 votes," said Mahoney.

According to ES&S officials, once a machine is clear and tested, there is no way of retrieving the erased votes.

"Why are we finding out now," said Mahoney. "Why does this have to be uncovered gradually? Obviously this report should have been forthright."

Meanwhile Sola says the incident resulted in new safeguards designed to prevent the deletion of votes from happening again. According to an ES&S spokesperson, the menu option for clear and test is no longer available while polls are open.

Of course, somehow the option to clear votes has to be available after the election, so the machines can be re-used.

"They are really coping with the fundamental problem that these machines are erasable."



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