Learning from 2000's Voting Machine
Heather Mullinix
B.E. Meadows, of Livingston, thinks he may know what happened. The machines were faulty, and the punch wouldn't allow a voter to completely dislodge the chad from his ballot.
"If it didn't have that pin, you could have voted, but the pin would just make a hole," Meadows said.
Following the election, a fierce legal battle raged between the campaigns of George W. Bush and Al Gore on whether to count ballots whose chads had managed to cling to the ballot by one or more of the cardboard slivers connecting it to the card. A 36-day recount in the state resulted in Bush winning the state and the election by 537 votes.
In the spring, Meadows was given a 2000 presidential election voting machine from Broward County, Fla. by an acquaintance. Meadows said the man had been living in Florida during the 2000 election and often bought scrapped electronics to salvage precious metals. He purchased 50 of the Broward County voting machines once the 2000 election had been resolved. When he found the machines contained only one electric light, he got rid of all but five.
"I've been offered money for it, already, but there's a historical aspect of it," Meadows said. "I like history, especially political history."
Meadows has offered the machine to the state museum for display.
Since that election, Florida election officials have spent millions to bring their voting machines in line with new technology. Following the 2000 election, $16 million was spent to purchase touch-screen machines. But those machines left no printed record of votes, which raised suspicions about tallies.
This year, for $7 million more, the touch-screen machines have been scrapped and the state is taking a step back in time, choosing to use paper ballots marked and read by an optical scanner.
With early voting in the 2008 election finished, and election day just around the corner, news agencies have reported problems with voting equipment in several states, including Tennessee.
Problems include touch-screen machines which can fail or occasionally register votes for unintended candidates. Optical-scan systems can have trouble reading paper ballots that are too long or marked with the wrong ink. At least one study has suggested electronic voting machines can be hacked, according to an article at CNN.com. The report said 55 percent of American voters will use optical-scan systems and one-third will use electronic touch screen machines. New York state still uses mechanical lever machines and several small counties in Maine and Vermont continue to use paper ballots counted by hand.
And the punch-card system? It's still used in a handful of counties in Idaho.
Meadows isn't sure which system is the best system to protect the intent of the voter, as he's heard of problems with all.
"There's all kinds of machines," Meadows said. "I think the safest bet would be on paper."
And Meadows? He voted by absentee ballot in Overton County, marking a paper ballot. He encourages all registered voters to get out and vote Tuesday.
"Voting is about the only right we've got left, and we should exercise it," Meadows said.