Tampa Bay Buzz Blog: Latest election worry: Change in voting software
OCTOBER 04, 2012
Latest election worry: Change in voting software
Some Florida election supervisors have a new concern with the approaching election: a switch in vote tabulation software that has been mandated by the state Legislature.
When lawmakers rewrote the state election code last year, they inserted some language that has not received much attention. Election supervisors must for the first time send the state extensive details on the voting habits of everyone who votes in November.
To do that requires a change in software -- which supervisors in some counties have not yet received, even though early voting begins in about three weeks. The software change affects counties that use voting equipment made by Election Systems & Software (ES&S), which includes 33 of the state's 67 counties and all of the high-population counties except for Duval and Hillsborough.
Sumter County Supervisor of Elections Karen Krauss wrote a letter this week to Secretary of State Ken Detzner asking that the change in software be postponed until after the election. Sumter is a high-turout county and is home to many residents of The Villages, the giant retirement community that straddles three counties.
more...
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/latest-election-worry-change-voting-software