General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A mathematician may have uncovered widespread election fraud, and Kansas is trying to silence her [View all]csziggy
(34,136 posts)Those use optical scanning machines that are easily hacked if not kept secure. I know for certain that Leon and Gadsden did (and still do) and think that Hillsborough County (Tampa) did.
I like the optical scanners - you have a paper ballot that can be counted by hand and if the scanners are kept secure and programmed competently they are fast and accurate. Plus if the scanners are programmed like the ones in Leon County, any ballot that might be an under or over vote or questionable is immediately kicked out for the voter to review.
Somewhere on a CDR I have data from the 2000 election that would have what machines were used in which counties. Florida allows the county supervisors of elections to determine what method is used in their county, usually from a list of approved devices. A few counties still used lever machines in 2000, some used punch cards, some optical scanners - it varied all over the place which was part of the conflict over the recount.
The recount was stopped by the Supreme Court partially because there could be no one standard for counting valid votes since there was no one standard for casting the votes. That has not changed so it would still be a way to stop a recount if a similar situation arose.