Question re: FL Optical Scan Machines

[BayStateBoy]

I notice that a great many FL counties use optical scan technology that is "precinct based."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2637235#2637264

Can someone please tell me what that means?

Do optical scan machines in FL leave a permanent record or paper trail?

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Decisions about the purchase of equipment

are made at the county level. Every county has a Supervisor of Elections which is an elected position. Within a county you have precincts and depending upon where you live, dictates which precinct you are supposed to vote at.

With an optical scanner, who are given a paper ballot and a pen/marker. You the sit or stand at a booth, usually made out of cardboard so that you have some privacy. When you are finished filling out you ballot, you feed it yourself into the scanner. The bottom of the scanner is a box that stores the paper ballot, that I assume stays sealed.

The paper ballots are then stored and can be recounted if necessary.

Depending on how the machine is programmed, spoilage may or may not be an issue. In my county if you do not fill in the boxes correctly, the scanner will not accept your ballot. It is then given back to you and you can go back to the booth to correct it, until you get it right. In other places the scanners are not programmed to reject errors and you have no way to know if the system was able to at least read you ballot.

Different strokes for different folks does not a fair election make.

[BOHICA06]

2. The votes are tailed at the Precinct ...

...for those votes cast at that precinct and then a data disk is sent to the Supervisor of Elections. At my precinct - a printout like a cash register receipt was posted to show how the votes tallied at that precinct.

Optical scan leave the perfect paper trail - ballots that are marked individually, with individual fingerprints and even DNA left on most so investigation can go from a simple recount (hand) to forensic verification.

[BayStateBoy]

3. Thanks so much for the 2 clarifications. Much appreciated. n/t