Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Selectric II who wrote (109986)	12/10/2000 11:47:18 PM
From: sunshadow	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 769670

Here is another piece that will not surprise you but might exasperate you/us even more - Computerized voting machines - who needs 'em? Web-posted: 11:33 a.m. Dec. 9, 2000 Blame Democrats for Broward County's presidential vote-counting mess. Blame former County Commission strongman Scott Cowan for helping out a childhood friend, a lobbyist. Blame politics as usual. On Jan. 5, Cowan is headed to six months in jail for election law violations. He has resigned from the commission. But seven years ago, Cowan led the way as the commission killed the purchase of a new voting system. The proposed new voting machines were computerized and would have eliminated the problem that surfaced this year: hanging, pregnant and dimpled chad resulting in uncounted votes. The price tag was $3 million. Fighting against the new system was Business Records Corp., which wanted commissioners to spend $200,000 to upgrade the aging Votomatic punch-card system. Business Records Corp. had a potent weapon on its side: It hired lawyer Sam Fields as a lobbyist. Fields ran Cowan's campaigns and is his childhood friend. Fields also had been a lawyer for Better Than Wood, a plastics company. The company is owned by Gerald Gunzburger, husband of Commissioner Sue Gunzburger. So it was no surprise when Cowan and Gunzburger voted to repair the Votomatics. The vote was 5-2 to fix the old system -- the same one that failed during the presidential election. This, by the way, is the same Gunzburger who as a member of the Broward Canvassing Board attacked the system as failing to record enough votes. She could not be reached for comment. Fields says today that the new computerized system was rejected because "it was untried. ... There was nothing wrong to that point with the punch cards, so why be the first to try an untried system?"