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  Date / Time: 11/12/2008 9:36 PM UTC

  Hillsborough: Diebold may be ousted from county
  

  After two consecutive election meltdowns, Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson found himself ousted. Now the county is considering ousting Diebold / Premier as well. "[Diebold]/Premier is clearly an awful vendor", one county commissioner admits. "This is likely headed for litigation," Judge James Dominquez, a canvassing board member, said at Thursday night's final vote count. "Someone needs to be held accountable for this."
  
  More:
  Tampa Bay Online - Nov. 11, 2008, by CHRISTIAN M. WADE
  
  http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/nov/08/080013/na-voting-vendor-may-be-ousted/ne ws-metro/
  
  Voting Vendor May Be Ousted
  
  TAMPA - Yet another new voting system for Hillsborough County?
  
  That's a possibility as the county tries to determine what role the newly purchased optical-scan voting machines - and the system's owner, Premier Election Solutions - played in Tuesday's election fiasco.
  
  "Premier is clearly an awful vendor," Commissioner Rose Ferlita said. "I think we need to find a vendor that's better in terms of equipment and support. We simply can't let this happen again."
  
  If the machines are scrapped, it will mark the fourth change in Hillsborough County since the infamous hanging chads of 2000.
  
  Those punch-card chads were followed by the security-challenged touch-screen computer machines, which were followed by the optical scanner used Tuesday.
  
  All told, the county and state spent a combined $13 million on the touch screens and optical scans in Hillsborough County.
  
  Getting a new system would involve spending millions more on machines and training.
  
  Busansky To Help Decide
  
  Changing the machines would take a recommendation from newly elected Supervisor of Elections Phyllis Busansky, and a majority vote from the seven-member Hillsborough County Commission.
  
  Busansky, who defeated Buddy Johnson in his re-election bid, wasn't prepared Friday to say if she would hire a new company.
  
  The optical-scan system ground to a halt Tuesday night as Hillsborough elections officials tried to upload 512,000 ballots cast early and on Election Day. Memory cards on each of the voting machines became overloaded and the data couldn't be transferred to machines tabulating the totals.
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  • Election Fraud News
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