Florida voting machines flipping votes

Florida voters are already going to the polls, and the voting machines are already starting to flip votes to the Republicans:

Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist.

That's exactly the kind of problem that sends conspiracy theorists into high gear - especially in South Florida, where a history of problems at the polls have made voters particularly skittish.

A poll worker then helped Rudolf, but it took three tries to get it right, Reed said.

"I'm shocked because I really want ... to trust that the issues with irregularities with voting machines have been resolved," said Reed, a paralegal. "It worries me because the races are so close."

Broward Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Mary Cooney said it's not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly. Poll workers are trained to recalibrate them on the spot - essentially, to realign the video screen with the electronics inside. The 15-step process is outlined in the poll-workers manual.

Some liberal bloggers have deliberately decided not to blog about voting machine problems until the election is over for fear it will demoralize potential voters and cause them not to turn out.

My feeling is the opposite. In my mind it means we just have to work even harder to have an overwhelming turnout, one large enough to dominate even a fixed machine. And, if the fix is still in, at least the fact of a fix might make the news for a change.