WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A public test of Palm Beach County's electronic voting machines was postponed because a computer server crashed.
Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore (search) said a power failure during Hurricane Jeanne (search) caused temperatures in the building to rise, which may have damaged computer equipment. She delayed Tuesday's test until Friday.
The computer failure won't affect the function of the machines during the Nov. 2 presidential election, she said. Even if one of the file servers goes down on election night, LePore said the votes cast on the electronic machines won't be lost and the office would use a backup server.
State law requires that a portion of the touch-screen voting machines be tested publicly before an election to ensure they work properly.
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (search), D-Delray Beach, a critic of electronic voting, has sued LePore, claiming touch-screen voting machines are unconstitutional because they don't allow manual recounts in close elections.
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