Tavares, FL - March 20, 2012
This is a good article below to illustrate how amateur data management in local government agencies like the Palm Beach County Elections office can result in poor safeguards that then allow huge errors.
In this case, apparently, the order of the names on a recent local ballot in Palm Beach County. FL did not match which fields were used to calculate candidate totals, so that people using the ballots saw a specific name, but their vote for that line item was added into totals for a different name for the election results.
The Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor, Susan Bucher, apparently
When a manager blames the mysterious computer for a glitch, rather than the people or process for programming it, then they need to go. It also means they didn’t have good quality control procedures to test and ensure data was accurate.
The citizens cannot afford to have computer illiterate officials in charge of data focused operations. According to this article, this is a pattern with the Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor. However, the article does NOT say how the Elections Supervisor, Susan Bucher, detected the problem AFTER all the votes were certified. Was it due to a complaint, or did they actually have a after vote procedure that detected the problem?
Also read my comment on the SunshineStatenews.com website. The ability to ensure accurate government data and validity of voters and votes in elections and other government agencies is more and more important with the use of computers.
I will write a future article on this, and the loopholes in the existing elections process that can allow voter fraud. For instance, right now, I was told this week that the County Elections office or Florida State has no method to cross reference voter data with other states, thus a person (snow bird, Acorn member, student) can register to vote in several states and vote in each of them. Of course, it depends on what checks are done to ensure they are valid voters in each state, so if they can claim residency, and find a way to meet other registration requirements, they get to vote.
And, if we do find voter loopholes in Florida, is it the fault of the State, or the local officials?
Vance Jochim
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Here is the more detailed comment I posted on the SunshineStateNews.com website:
In the corporate world, they use batch controls to track and validate group totals in computers. You also run a test batch through new software to ensure it works as expected. It sounds like they don't do that or they would have caught it. The article is not clear whether the software came from machine vendor, the State, or whether the elections dept. didn't configure it correctly. There is a concept called field matching, where you go through a process to visually match source fields with output data fields, and it seems they don't do that either, or it was done incorrectly.
I was a Corporate Internal Audit Director and a Certified Information Systems auditor, plus I write a blog ( FiscalRangers.com ) on local government fiscal fiascos in Lake County, FL. The need for an advanced level of computer knowledge now seems to exceed the capability of many elected officials. You almost need to require a degree in database administration to get people who can cope with government records automation, and understand advanced procedures to ensure data accuracy. Elected officials should be computer literate.
