brennan center for justice

October 2008August 2008PremierAccuVote-OSPermierAccuVote-OSFloridaFloridaproperly, it can be skewed just enough that thetiming marks on the side will produce a ballot thatwill not be read,” an official told the station. “Due tothe tolerance of the machines, some machines mayaccept it and some may not.” 342Flagler County, FLThe Flagler News-Journal reported that “FlaglerCounty elections officials switched voting machinesfor early voting Tuesday to eliminate a problem thathad kept them from scanning 96 ballots during earlyvoting hours Monday.” Election Supervisor PeggyRae Border told the paper that “the county's vendorthinks slightly shorter ballots⎯1/32 of an inch insome cases⎯may have caused the problem. She saidshe suspected the new machines were more sensitiveto the variation in ballot length.” The 96 ballotswere eventually successfully scanned. 343Brevard County, FLAccording to Florida Today, “[a] glitch involving amere 20 votes tallied on touch-screen votingmachines Tuesday caused a two-hour delay inelection results . . . . About a third of the 140machines malfunctioned.”August 2008ES&SDS200FloridaInterim Supervisor of Elections Bert Childress toldthe paper that the problem had been identified theprevious year, and that the manufacturer was unableto get necessary replacement parts to the county intime to remedy the defect. “‘They told us it was ourphone lines,’ Childress said. ‘They finally admitted inJuly that it was a problem with their machines. Abouta third of our machines failed to downloadproperly.’” According to the paper, Premier agreed toreplace 150 modules at no cost, but told Brevardofficials that the units would not be ready in time forthe primary. 344Pinellas County, FLThe St. Petersburg Times reported that “[i]n Pinellas,12 scanners had to be replaced at voting precincts,according to county elections spokeswoman NancyWhitlock. Some experienced paper jams, and onsome the screens froze, but they were traded out withfunctioning ones in a matter of minutes, she said.”No further information regarding the problem wasprovided. 34558 | Brennan Center for Justice