Repeat the Same Mistake

Elections Systems & Software released a press statement stating they were not responsible for the Sarasota voting problems. They blamed it on the stupidity of the voters.

"ES&S was not present during the election, so it would be inappropriate to speculate on the situation," spokeswoman Jill Freidman-Wilson said. "However, we have been in contact with the Supervisor of Elections who has emphasized that the voting equipment functioned well.

"The touch screen system used in Sarasota County provides unlimited opportunity for a voter to make and change selections before a ballot is cast. Therefore, according to the Supervisor of Elections, undervotes were a result of an intentional choice not to make a selection in the congressional race or unintentional omission of a selection."

It turns out ES&S knew of problems with the machines before the general election. They sent this letter to Sarasota County election officials on August 15, 2006.

"It has come to our attention after a number of inquiries...that some of your screens are exhibiting slow response times...We have determined that the delayed response time is a result of a smoothing filter that was added...In some cases, the time lapse on these consistent reads is beyond the normal time a voter would expect."

We don't have to worry about that since Florida is switching to paper ballot machines. ES&S scored the contracts to make new machines for Florida. Election officials in Florida are the dumbest in America.