Anonym / Monday, July 17, 2006 / Categories: 2006 Supervisor of Elections Office Addresses Voter Confidence Issues West Palm Beach, FL - July 17, 2006 -The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office would like to assure the citizens of the county that their voting processes and systems are completely safe by sharing some of the ins and outs of their security procedures. All Florida voting systems (including the Sequoia system,) are certified by federal testing laboratories and by one of the most rigorous state testing processes in the country before they can be purchased. Many systems proposed for use in the state are unable to pass this high level of scrutiny. Once a system is implemented, the state requires that the county re-test every voting unit prior to every election. This thorough and time-consuming effort is performed in order to ensure the accuracy and security of the system. The results of these election-specific (and open to the public) tests are filed with the state of Florida prior to the election. There are a multitude of layered security features and procedures that protect the Sequoia voting system from fraud and assure the integrity of elections. Internal hardware redundancies, the use of tamper proof seals, and a system of checks and balances for election workers to name just a few. Programming of the voting units incorporates a double-blind mechanism to insure that neither the system vendor nor an election worker can manipulate the tabulation of votes. In addition, voting fraud is a felony in Florida, punishable by fine and imprisonment, acting as a strong deterrent against tampering. With the implementation of HAVA, the Help America Vote Act of 2002, every jurisdiction in the country is now required by federal law to conduct elections on electronic voting devices. The human interface for voting may be a touch screen like those used in Palm Beach County, or a marked piece of paper that is then placed into a scanner, but ALL ballots are collected electronically and tabulated by a computer. This provides a level of objectivity, accuracy, and efficiency that manual ballot counting simply cannot provide. The United States Court of Appeals has just reaffirmed that the voting systems used in Florida, and the procedures for recounting election results are valid, legal, and constitutional. The court concluded that there is no evidence that voters will be less likely to cast an effective vote on a touch screen system than on any other system. Voters should therefore feel secure in using the touch screen voting system and confident that their votes will be accurately tabulated, even in the unlikely event of a full recount. “Elections experts around the state are working together to continually enhance the usability, security, and efficiency of Florida voting systems,” said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Dr. Arthur Anderson. “The 67 county Supervisors, in cooperation with the state Division of Elections are continually developing new guidelines, rules, and training tools to better serve the voting public. In addition, counties using similar systems meet regularly to guarantee consistent ‘best practices’ and to share ideas for improving the overall elections process. We want our constituents to feel confident in our policies and procedures.” Previous Article Supervisor of Elections Office Receives Visit From Gulfstream Goodwill Industries Next Article Legal Notice Print 738 Rate this article: No rating Please login or register to post comments.