Why I don't trust voting in Florida

[HockeyMom]

I moved from NY to Collier County, Florida in 2007. The first time I voted there was for the General Election in 2008. I early voted in a library in North Naples which is a very Republican area.

When I went up to sign in, I was greeted with, "Lookie here!" "We got ourselves a DEMOCRAT". I was then ushered to a "special Democratic Optical Scanner". NOBODY had been voting on that machine, or after me. I know I should have said something at the time, but I was too shocked at what was happening. In 30 years of voting in NY, nothing had ever happened like this.

Although I was given a receipt saying I voted, it did not say WHO I voted for. I did tell the poll worker that this receipt meant nothing if it didn't print out my choice. Did my vote for Obama then count? Given my "special" machine, I doubt it.

My second voting experience for Governor was nothing like this. I voted early again, but this time in Golden Gate City which is a majority Hispanic and poor area. They did not scream out my party affiliation and I was not ushered to a "Democratic" machine. However, I still had no way of knowing if anything underhanded happened.

This election I cannot vote early being out of state and Florida shortening the early voting time. I am going to vote with my absentee ballot in person on election day. I will have to vote this time where I live. It is a very mixed area unlike the other the other two area. What is going to happen this time? I don't know, but given what has happened in the past, I am very worried. We also now have the Fraud, Space Alien as Governor. I am sure he and the rest of the Republicans in control of Florida will do everything they possible can to STEAL the election for Robme.

Sad, but my advice is to monitor this state very, very closely, and if Romney wins by a very close amount, Obama MUST contest Florida. Please, please, make my and all DEMOCRATIC voters in Florida have their voices known. Don't let them get away with this again. My personal feeling is that they stole the Governor election with less than 1% of the vote going to Scott. I am very, very AFRAID voting in the state of Florida.

[csziggy]

1. The process is too dependent on the Supervisor of Elections

For your county. The counties are pretty much under the control of their SEs for how elections are run and poll workers are trained.

Here in Leon County I have complete confidence in our Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho. He's fought for fair and open voting since he was elected in the 1980s he has worked with fair voting advocates to investigate voting irregularities with electronic voting. Once Mr. Sancho retires, I will worry about my vote being counted fairly unless he personally selects his successor!

If you want to have more confidence that your vote will be counted, find a candidate to run against the current Supervisor of Elections and help them get into office.

I certainly would have complained in 2008 about the poll workers announcing your party affiliation and had major questions about a specific voting machine set aside for Democratic voters. Segregating voters by party should be against the rules if not against the law.

[Not Me]

5. I agree...it's like 62 little fiefdoms. And I don't trust some of them.

I live in Orlando, and believe Bill Cowles, the Orange County SoE to be a man of integrity and honesty. But some counties really frighten me.

[lumpy]

2. My greatest fear in this election is that voting fraud will be committed in some states.

There has to be government oversight if there are questionable results. If this should prove to be the case then whoever is responsible should be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. This basic voting right must be preserved or we will truly fail as a nation.

[Grammy23]

3. As a FL Resident, I am concerned as well.

I have mailed in my Absentee Ballot and have checked on it and noted that it has been received by the Supervisor of Elections here in Escambia County. Our choices for casting our ballot all have pluses and minuses to them. It seems that no matter how we vote, there are ways for our vote to be discarded, switched or stolen in some other manner. It is enough to make a voter distrust the entire system but if we opt out, altogether, it's for sure our vote "won't count".

Since we know there have been problems, glitches and irregularities in the past, we must stay on this and as problems appear they need to be reported and addressed on the spot, if possible. As for problems that do not seem to have a way to be corrected immediately, we simply cannot ignore them. We have been through this before and mostly what happens is we complain bitterly, scream loudly for a few days and then it all just "goes away". We cannot do that this time. If we allow them to push us aside and call us Tin Foil Hatters and do not demand action and investigation, we will be one more step toward the complete destruction of our rights as citizens.

Anyone who has knowledge of resources, agencies or leaders who have started working on this already or who will come to our aid can do a great service by listing them here so we have a starting place to lodge complaints and give information to what is happening here in Florida and other states that are impacted by efforts to steal this election.

[lunasun]

4. a "special Democratic Optical Scanner"

well we now know about those..........In my gut I know an absentee ballot many years ago was chucked just by how I was treated turning it in at town hall before leaving out of town - it was much like you describe plus with snarky grins and the town demographics were total Repug crooked mob area.

GOTV they can not flip the numbers if Obama's are super high!! We cant count on contested votes after the fact IMO
GOTV