Palm Beach County considers $1 million fix for vote counting delays - Sun-Sentinel
Speeding up Palm Beach County's traditionally slow election returns could cost taxpayers another $1 million under a proposal going before the County Commission Tuesday.
Buying new software and adding modems would allow transmitting vote totals instead of driving vote-recording cartridges from polling pace scanners to the county's tabulation center.
Driving across Florida's largest county to deliver vote totals has been blamed for Palm Beach County often being one of the last in the state to finish counting votes.
Palm Beach County's vote total reporting delays in November attracted statewide attention during the close governor's race. Most counties posted all precinct votes by midnight, but Palm Beach County was reporting just 64 percent at 11:50 p.m.
The new equipment would address that problem before the November 2012 presidential election, Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher said.
"Every other large county in the state has the ability," Bucher said about transmitting vote totals. "They get to go home before the next day."
If the County Commission approves the money, Bucher still faces the hurdle of getting the new system certified by the state.
In April, Palm Beach County's test run at using modems had software malfunctions.
The Florida Department of State has yet to see Bucher's new plan and still has questions about how she plans to implement it, Spokesman Chris Cate said Monday.
The Department of State recommends that Palm Beach County "adopt remote tally sites" that could "provide accurate and timely reporting for a minimal expenditure of funds," Cate said.
With Palm Beach County's image still smarting from the disputed 2000 presidential election – marred by hanging chads and a confusing butterfly ballot – local officials don't want to risk any more Election Night hiccups.
If the County Commission approves the sole-source deal with Dominion Voting Systems, the deal calls for the new system to be tested and certified by the state by March 2012.
County Commission Chairwoman Karen Marcus said she is concerned that if another problem with the proposed system emerges that might not leave enough time to fix the vote reporting delays in time for the November 2012 presidential election.
"What's Plan B?" Marcus asked. "We can't go through a presidential election with the delays we had last time."
abreid@tribune.com, 561-228-5504
04 Oct, 2011--
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