FL: Audit Reveals Serious Problems With State's Election Administration

Florida Audit Reveals Serious Problems With State's Election Administration

Activists Welcome Aduit's Finding But That It Only Scratches the Surface

Download The Auditor General's Report

By Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA

June 21, 2006

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According to the audit, the Department does not have a procedure in place to evidence for the public record that voting systems being certified had met the requirements of Florida law and does not prohibit the Secretary of State and any examiners from having a financial interest in the examination of and approval of voting equipment.

Further, the audit reveals that the Department does not maintain a current, reliable control listing of voting systems certified and in use by the counties, nor does it have a procedure in place to ensure that voting system information was on file with the Department.

The audit also found that the state incorrectly calculated the required maintenance costs that were included in the State of Florida HAVA Plan and also did not maintain the required level of expenditures for the 2004-05 fiscal year and salary certifications required for employees who worked solely on the HAVA Program were not maintained. The state has not instituted sufficient procedures to ensure that voter education programs are in compliance with Florida law and the state has not always followed Federal requirements with regards to awards to other State agencies.

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Florida election integrity activists welcomed the audits find but were quick to note that the findings only scratched the surface of problems with the state’s election administration. “The audit hasn’t covered half of it,” commented Anita Lapidus of Florida Fair Election Coalition (FFEC). “There is no security testing of these machines at the State or federal level. There is no way to recover lost votes.”

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http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1415&Itemid=113

Wonder if this will make it into any of the mainstream Florida newspapers. If anyone has a few minutes to send copies around to some of the Florida major newspapers, that would be a great thing to do. I'm doing it right now as well. Maybe if they receive enough copies of this, someone will pay attention and do a story about it. Election machine problems are showing up all over the country now. Look what's going on in San Diego! Maybe this is the time that they will listen.

I can hope, right?

Yuh think?