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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (99241)	12/3/2000 7:37:20 AM
From: ColtonGang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Flaw found in voting machines Faulty springs but no 'chad buildup' STEVE HARRISON sharrison@herald.com Did a condition called ''chad buildup'' cause thousands of Palm Beach County ballots to record no vote for president? That was one of the arguments made by Democrats Saturday in Leon County Circuit Court as they tried to convince a judge to order another South Florida recount. But a Herald examination on Friday of every voting machine in a Palm Beach precinct with one of the highest so-called ''undervote'' totals revealed no evidence of chads clogging the machinery, which has not been cleaned since election night. Several of the voting machines, however, did have another flaw -- faulty or worn springs -- that could have increased voter error and accounted for some undervotes. The Herald examined all 17 machines in Precinct 162E, one in which more than 11 percent of the ballots showed no vote for any presidential candidate. By way of comparison, the countywide presidential undervote was just 2.2 percent -- one of the highest rates in the state. Democrats are convinced that the cause is faulty machinery, not voter indifference. Palm Beach County uses voting machines made by two manufacturers: Votomatic and Data-Punch. The latter machines are less expensive, and in precincts where Data-Punch was used the number of undervotes was, on average, 2 1/2 times higher. About 1,300 Data-Punch machines were used in 75 of the county's 531 precincts. About 3,700 Votomatic machines were in the rest. In Precinct 162E, all of the voting machines were manufactured by Data-Punch. All Data-Punch machines are not the same. Some Data-Punch machines -- and all Votomatics -- have a copper spring that rejects the ballot if it isn't inserted properly. The other Data-Punch machines, an older model, are outfitted with a plastic spring, which doesn't apply as much force on the ballot if the voter does not carefully insert the ballot all the way in. If the ballot isn't inserted properly, plastic springs will allow a voter's ballot to shift. A voter's stylus could strike the ballot on the corner of a chad, or below or above it. Voters would have no idea they were not punching through the ballot. In both the Votomatic machines and the more up-to-date Data-Punch machines, if the ballot is not inserted properly a plastic shield will conspicuously block the voter's stylus. Lora Lee Stephens, owner of San Diego-based Election Data Corp., which makes Data-Punch machines, said the older models could potentially cause a problem. She said the plastic springs were phased out because the metal worked better. But in either case, if voters insert their ballots correctly, the machines work fine. ''The plastic springs have more play,'' Stephens said. ''But the key is for the card to be in the right place. Voters have to take responsibility.'' It isn't clear whether a significant number of voters inserted their ballots improperly into older Data-Punch machines and missed the chad. MARKS ON CHADS Democratic attorney Dennis Newman said about ''20 percent'' of 14,500 disputed ballots in Palm Beach County had marks on the corner of chads, or below or above them. In some cases, he said, it appears the problem was corrected at some point in the voting process. ''If they didn't insert their cards properly, they might have fixed them while voting,'' Newman said. The other factor that could affect undercount totals: Votomatic machines are fastened to the voting booth while Data-Punch machines are not. Some voters could hold them in one hand while applying the stylus with the other. ''Something is wrong, but it's a mystery as to what that is,'' said Jackie Winchester, the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections from 1973 to 1996. ''The plastic spring could be part of it. And because voters can move the machine, they could have hit the ballot from an angle, or with not enough force.'' The Data-Punch machines were bought during Winchester's tenure. She now believes they should be phased out. Theresa LePore, the current supervisor of elections, has refused to field questions from reporters since the day after the election. LePore designed the butterfly ballot. RUBBER STRIPS Plastic springs alone can't account for the nearly 5,000 undervotes produced on Data-Punch machines. Democrats contend that some machines had rubber strips supporting the ballot that were too hard, making it difficult for chads to fall away from the punch card. No precinct received both Votomatic and Data-Punch machines. But all 75 precincts assigned Data-Punch machines received both models -- ones with copper springs and ones with plastic springs. Although Precinct 162E, in Delray Beach, has a large number of elderly voters, precincts with younger demographics that used Data-Punch machines also had larger than average undervote totals.