While other supervisors of elections throughout the state have remained confident that they will complete recounting ballots cast in November, Palm Beach County’s elections supervisor remains skeptical they will complete counting each race subject to recounts by the Thursday afternoon deadline set by the state.
Susan Bucher has repeatedly asked for additional funding to update antiquated voting machines and blasted state officials for not extending the deadline so the county can count every vote.
Bucher said Monday it was irresponsible for the state to implement and not extend the deadline despite delays in ballot tabulation.
Palm Beach County first got its voting machines in 2007. It uses an optical scanning software that only allows each individual race to be scanned.
There are only eight machines in Florida’s third-largest county to scan nearly 600,000 ballots cast.
… While Bucher is hoping to receive more than $11 million from the county to replace the old voting machines, the changes will not happen until Palm Beach County goes through budget requests in March.
Bucher, who has repeatedly criticized the state’s division of elections, has called for serious elections reform prior to the recounts. Earlier this month, before the election, she referred to the state’s online voter registration system as a “mess” during an interview with the Palm Beach Post.
Full Article: Florida elections: Palm Beach County recount delays caused by old voting machines.