Software blamed for late election results in Palm Beach County  (FL)

Josh Hafenbrack | South Florida Sun-Sentinel   31 January 2008

Plagued by persistent problems reporting election-night results, Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said Wednesday he would upgrade the county's voting software system to try to head off problems in the future.

A faulty early voting cartridge was blamed for a glitch that kept precinct totals from being reported until 11 p.m. Tuesday night, four hours after the polls closed. While other counties, including Broward, were reporting results with precinct information, Palm Beach County didn't show precinct totals. That left people to guess at how much of the vote had come in, especially in municipal races.

"I understand it's a small glitch, but other counties seem to be able to work these things out," said Lake Worth Mayor Jeff Clemens, who was following three referendums in his city. "Maybe someone needs to drive to Broward to take some lessons."

Anderson said he would make system upgrades in time for the March municipal elections, when 31 cities vote.

At issue is the Sequoia Voting Systems ballot-tabulation machine that reads voting cartridges. The county's version requires all early voting cartridges to be functioning before precinct totals can be posted — like holiday lights where one faulty bulb can kill the whole strand.

Upgrading to a newer version would be time-consuming and expensive, Anderson said, at a time when the county is moving away from touch-screen machines in favor of paper ballots. No cost estimate for the changes was available.

Despite the misgivings, Anderson said the upgrades are warranted.

"In terms of being responsive to the public and voter confidence, we'll have to use that as a justification," he said.

Even with the upgrades, don't expect speedy election night results. Tallies will continue to come in more slowly than in other counties, Anderson said. This is because the county requires workers at far-flung election sites to drive in result cartridges, rather than submit them digitally, as is the practice in other counties.

"Our community is very apprehensive and suspect of the electronic aspects of this entire voting process," Anderson said. He added that with the software changes, "we'll be more timely because we'll avoid this problem with the cartridge situation that's hampered us in the past."

Royal Palm Beach Council candidate Martha Webster waited so long for complete results Tuesday night that she decided to forgo the champagne she had been reserving for her victory celebration. By the time she got word she'd won, it was too late and the party was breaking up.

"In truth, I can't complain," Webster said. "Could it have been a little quicker? Maybe."

Sid Dinerstein, county Republican Party chairman, added, "God bless us, we're just always a little bit late. I don't want to pick on [Anderson ]. Clearly, we would rather be late and accurate, and last night we were late and accurate."

Tuesday's snags were the latest in a string of problems in posting results. Last March, Anderson's office posted the wrong winners in city elections on its Web site. Blame for that glitch went to SOE Software, which manages the elections Web site.

SOE runs about 20 elections Web sites across the state and none experienced issues like Palm Beach County's on Tuesday night, said Chief Executive Mark Fratello.

"I think this was an unfortunate situation that Palm Beach County had," he said. "Their vendor is probably scrambling to make sure that software gets upgraded."

Sequoia representatives could not be reached to comment, despite attempts by phone.

Staff Writer Josh Hafenbrack can be reached at jhafenbrack@sun- sentinel.com or 561-228-5508.