Harold Koplow

1105 Ft. Clarke Blvd. #1605

Gainesville, FL 32606

(352) 333-9790

hkoplow@bellsouth.net

December 17, 2000

Mr. Jeb Bush, Governor of the State of Florida

The Capitol

Tallahassee, FL 32399

Dear Governor Bush:

Perhaps you or your election task force committee might consider a suggestion my son presented to me.  First a little background,

I was a Vice President at Wang Laboratories in Massachusetts for 15 years where I invented the Wang Word Processor.  Following that, I was a Senior Vice President at Computer Consoles whose primary product was 411 directory assistance.  We were the first people to introduce the 411 product that spoke the telephone number.

My son, David ( a recent graduate of FAU), is an engineer with Perry Technologies located in Riviera Beach, Florida where he designs robotic submarines to detect and locate underwater hidden explosives. Perry Technologies is a division of Lockheed Martin. 

I have lived in Florida for approximately 15 years in Broward, Palm Beach, and Alachua counties and have used the “voting machines” in each of those places.

My son’s idea is quite simple.  Whichever system you choose will invariably involve PC’s.  Most of theses ideas will involve purchasing PC’s with custom software and/or hardware for use in elections.  

A much more cost effective solution would be to use PC’s that already exist in the local government offices.  If additional PC’s are needed because there are not enough in a given county, or the ones in a given county are too old,  I am sure that the government employees in that county would be happy to have the use of the “new” PC’s and give them up for one or two days around election time.  Similarly many of the plans that will be presented, will require touch screens; these monitors (with the touch screen hardware disabled) could replace many of the older monitors in our state and local offices and then be removed for a few days at election time.

One of the arguments against PC’s, touch screens etc., will be the what if problem.  What if the PC’s crashes and all the votes are lost?  What if a recount is needed?  What if a virus changes the votes?

After a voter casts their “electronic” vote, a nearby printer could print their choices.  This would be presented to the voter for verification, and if correct would be stored away for use in a “what if scenario.”  If not correct, the voter would be given a chance to correct their vote.

Very truly yours,

Harold Koplow

P.S.  I voted for you and your dad.  My choices were good.