A Shift In IT Priorities

As 2001 kicked off, solution providers and vendors descended on the Sunshine State to show off the latest and greatest in election technology, including online voting and computerized touch-screens. But election reform lost momentum after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Now, vendors and integrators are selling more security solutions and biometric technology to the government than new voting systems.

Ironically, the Florida crisis may have been compounded as time has passed. Results of a joint study by California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology show that 4 to 6 million votes were lost nationwide during the presidential election, largely because of "faulty and outdated voting technology" and registration inaccuracies. In addition, the consortium of major newspapers and media outlets such as CNN, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, ultimately used nine different "scenarios," including dimpled ballots and two-corner detached ballots, to count the vote; former vice president Al Gore won Florida, according to five scenarios, while President Bush won four.

With the IT industry's help, perhaps we can agree on just one way to count votes by 2004.