Election time in Palm Beach County…

Election 2000 is something many people will remember. In my case, after several years of living abroad I arrived back in Palm Beach County just in time to vote. And vote I did using the infamous butterfly ballots with its hanging chads. Right now, having moved once more abroad I keep in touch with happenings in Palm Beach thanks to my friends there. And what I hear for this coming election is not very reassuring. The county is now one of the largest in the country and is bracing itself for a million voters in November but this time no with butterfly ballots. So things should go smoothly one thinks. Well, nobody is sure that is going to be so. The reason for this is a little hitch that happened in a local August election to elect a county judge in Palm Beach: some 100,000 people voted and the election is still in the balance. More than 3,000 votes were ‘lost’ in a ware house, then they realized that high-speed ballot counting machines couldn’t count ballots the same way twice…
In the election of 2004 after the butterfly ballots have been discarded, the county decided to use a touch-screen system but after many complaints, the current governor of Florida Charlie Crist, decreed that a paper trail was needed for 2008. And that is the as such unproved way for this coming elections. Voters will use a paper ballot to complete an arrow next to their preferred candidate, then the ballot will go into a machine which will record it electronically. Were a recount needed the paper ballots will be counted by machine and in the case of rejected ballots by people.
All I can say is that I would love to be back there just to see the mess this is going to originate. Good old Palm Beach, I love it!