| 2004-2008 |
 ifty-two memory card failures in 2004 and dozens of failures since-- as exposed by Florida Fair Elections Coalition and by the Daytona Beach News Journal-- were never investigated by the Volusia County Elections Office or by the Secretary of State. Memory cards are the “electronic ballot boxes” that hold the vote totals and memory card failures can lead to serious questions about election results. All memory cards were replaced in 2006 but have continued to fail at an unacceptable rate. |
| Memory card failures must be investigated and the vendor must be held accountable. |
2005-2008 |
| our Assistant Supervisors of Elections, an Operations Manager and other personnel have either been fired or have resigned in less than four years, under the administration of the current Supervisor. |
| The hiring and retention of knowledgeable staff is important for ensuring reliable, accurate elections. |
2005 |
 n Edgewater voter was allowed to vote twice, and the current Supervisor advised discarding a legitimate ballot, selected at random, to compensate for the double-voting of the one voter. During early voting, at the New Smyrna Beach Library early voting site, the Edgewater voter was accidentally given and voted a New Smyrna Beach ballot, which was irretrievable after it had been deposited into the voting machine. He later demanded, and was given, an Edgewater ballot, which was retained as a provisional ballot. Subsequently, as approved by the current Supervisor, the man’s provisional ballot was counted with the Edgewater ballots. At the same time, a New Smyrna Beach ballot—the ballot of a legitimate voter—was randomly selected and discarded. |
| No voter should ever be allowed to vote twice under any circumstance. The man’s provisional ballot should have been discarded, not the ballot of a legitimate voter. A legitimate ballot should never be discarded for any reason. Also, procedures should be in place to prevent voters from receiving the wrong ballot to begin with. |
2005 |
 he current Supervisor advised City Clerks to stop two municipal Primary Elections in the middle of early voting, causing hardship for some candidates and confusion among voters. In the Deltona mayor’s race, for example, total voter turnout decreased from about 100 voters per day to only 5-10 voters per day after the mayor’s race was cancelled because voters thought the entire election for all races had been cancelled. The drop in voter turnout ended up affecting candidates in all the other races, which had not been cancelled. A similar situation occurred in the Daytona Beach City Council race. |
| No election for any race should ever be cancelled once it has begun. |
2005 |
| he current Supervisor fought for the purchase of insecure, error-prone touchscreen voting machines and threatened at least one county councilor with “personal financial ruin” when he did not agree to the purchase. |
| Personal threats have no place in election administration. |
2005 |
| he current Supervisor started a written and verbal smear campaign against Judge Michael McDermott after he spoke in favor of paper ballots at a Volusia County Council meeting. She was forced to issue a public apology. |
| Smear campaigns have no place in election administration. |
2006 |
 lections staff, under the leadership of the current Supervisor, urged voters to vote on touchscreen voting machines and berated voters who wanted to vote on paper ballots. |
| Elections personnel should not attempt to influence voters in a polling place. |
2006 |
| he current Supervisor fired a poll-worker because the poll worker said she preferred to vote on paper ballots. At the time she made her comment, the 76-year-old poll worker was off duty and was waiting in line to vote at her polling place. |
| Citizens have the right to express their opinions and to choose to vote on verifiable paper ballots. |
2006 |
 emory cards holding two weeks of vote totals from the Deltona and Daytona Beach early voting sites were erased and no “results tapes” were ever produced. The ballots were rescanned in secret by the supervisor of elections and new results tapes were produced. |
| To ensure that election results have not been altered, memory cards should never be erased before certification of an election. The original results tape, which is part of the audit record, should always be compared to final the results tape produced after ballots are rescanned to ensure that no ballot tampering has occurred in the interim. |
2006 |
 oted ballots were transported in manila envelopes.
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| Ballots should always be transported in special, secure ballot containers that are locked and sealed to prevent access to those ballots. |
2004-2008 |
| oted absentee ballots are kept in open containers in the vault before those ballots have been counted. |
| Voted ballots should always be stored in special, secure ballot containers that are locked and sealed to prevent access to those ballots. Some counties employ a double-lock system requiring two separate keys or access cards for entry to the vault, ensuring that one person alone never has access. At the very least, absentee ballots should be stored in locked containers and protected with numbered seals—and the seal numbers should be recorded to prevent access to those ballots. |
2006 |
| anila envelopes, holding voted ballots, were opened by elections staff on election night to “check” the number of ballots against the number of voters who voted in each polling place. This was not done in front of the Canvassing Board. This “check” is supposed to be done by poll workers at the polling places. |
| Ballot containers should remain locked and sealed unless required to be opened for a rescan, recount, audit, ballot inspection, or by court order—and should only be opened in public in front of the Canvassing Board. |
2006 |
 aper “results tapes” – the only paper record of vote totals – were missing from three precincts and were printed by the current Supervisor sixteen days after the election. |
| Results tapes should be reconciled with election results before certification of the election. |
2006 |
| he main entrance to the City Island Library early voting site in Daytona Beach was barricaded due to a weekend art festival. |
| Local events should always be checked to ensure they do not interfere with access to polling places. |
2006 |
| he City Island Library early voting site in Daytona Beach experienced a 4-hour power loss on a Saturday. Voters were turned away during the power outage and were prevented from voting. |
| One advantage of paper ballots is that voters should be able to continue voting even when machines are down. Voters should never be prevented from voting when paper ballots are available. |
2006 |
| ll the early-voted ballots from the Deltona Library early voting site and from the City Island early voting site in Daytona Beach were rescanned in private, not in front of the Canvassing Board, without obtaining original vote totals from either site. The memory cards from both sites were erased by the current Supervisor before the election was certified and no original “results tapes” from either site were produced until after the ballots were rescanned in private. |
| Original “results tapes” should always be produced so that they can be compared to the results tapes produced during rescanning. Memory cards should never be erased prior to certification of an election. Ballots should always be rescanned in public, in front of the Canvassing Board, and affected candidates should be notified. |
2008 |
| olitical party representatives were allowed to observe in the central computer room in other counties but were barred from observing in Volusia County. |
| Elections belong to the people, not to election administrators and vendors. Every aspect of an election, including vote counting and tabulating, should be observable by citizens as stated in Florida law. There is no good reason to prevent observation in the central computer room other than to cover up the problems that invariably occur there. |
2006-2008 |
| housands of early-voted ballots from the City Island early voting site in Daytona Beach were rescanned following the end of early voting in 2006, 2007, and again in the Presidential Preference Primary in 2008. The original totals were never produced—only the rescanned totals. |
| Original totals should always be compared to rescanned totals, as part of a complete audit record and to ensure that no ballot alterations have occurred in the days between the end of early voting and the time of the rescan. |
2008 (Presidential Preference Primary) |
 arack Obama’s name was misspelled as “Barak” on 2,500 absentee ballots mailed to voters. |
| No comment needed. |
2005-2008 |
| our Assistant Supervisors of Elections have been fired or have resigned in less than four years, under the administration of the current Supervisor. An Operations Manager and other personnel were either fired or resigned. |
| The hiring and retention of knowledgeable staff is important for ensuring reliable, accurate elections. |
2007 |
| he current Supervisor tried to prevent tours, by groups of elementary school children, of the historic courthouse (where the elections office is housed), citing security concerns and stating that these tours are too noisy and interrupt the business of the elections office. The tours were allowed to continue after intervention by the Chair of the County Council. |
| The elections staff is there to serve the public and all citizens should feel welcome there at any time. The historic courthouse is an important part of Volusia County’s history and school children should have access to it as part of their heritage. There are serious security concerns in the elections office, but tours by elementary school children are not one of them. When elected, I will not only welcome tours by school children but will work with the schools to expand the program to allow those students to cast ballots in a “mock election,” educating our voters of the future. |
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