Voter disenfranchisement caused by EVID could affect neck-and-neck Governor race against Rick Scott in Sunshine State...
By Ernest A. Canning on 11/4/2014, 6:08pm PT  

While we've been covering multiple cases of on-screen vote flipping by the 100% unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) systems, another electronic vote-related system failure, relating to the state's Electronic Voter ID (EVID) system, has also emerged in the state of Florida.

The state Democratic Party filed an emergency Motion for Ex Parte Relief [PDF] earlier this evening seeking to compel Broward County election officials to keep polls open until 9:00 p.m. They alleged, among other issues, that an "EVID system throughout the day has prevented voters from being able to update their address on the day of the election, as they are permitted to do by law."

Instead of being allowed to vote, voters were "asked to present themselves at the Supervisor of Elections office in order to update their address and return to the polling place at a later time to vote a regular ballot." That and other issues may have prevented the lawful casting of ballots in an extraordinarily close Governor's race...

According to the Broward County Supervisor of Elections website, the EVID "is used to verify a voter’s address, status and signature information at Early Voting and the polls. The voter presents his (or her) Florida Driver’s License or Florida Motor Vehicle Identification Card (with the magnetic strip) to the clerk at the precinct and the card is swiped through the EVID unit, which accesses the voter database and displays the information for the voter so that it can be verified as to precinct, address, etc."

Miami Herald is reporting former Governor Charlie Crist (D) complained that there had been "individual and systemic breakdowns," which also entailed "a polling station that went offline for more than 90 minutes."

Crist, a former Republican Governor turned Democrat, is currently in a deadlocked battle with Florida's current Republican Gov. Rick Scott. If results are as close as pre-election polls have predicted, any problems at the polls on Election Day could become part of a potential legal contest by either candidate.

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UPDATE 7:03pm PT: Court rejects Crist's emergency motion. Details here. Polls now closed, but FL Governor's race remains "too close to call" at this hour.

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Article Categories: Florida, Touch-Screen DREs/BMDs, Election 2014