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68 Dead, 56 Wounded in Baquba Car Bombing; Florida Touchscreen Voting Machines Crash
Aired July 28, 2004 - 12:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Deadly attack. A car bomb on a busy Iraq street, a violent sing of instability one month after the U.S. handed over control.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Two if by sea. John Kerry boats into Boston Harbor, cruising into the convention, hoping to capture votes in a hotly contested race.
O'BRIEN: Will your vote count this time around? Troubles with touchscreens in Florida raise questions about new e-voting systems. We may be longing for chads.
PHILLIPS: Securing the Olympic Games. International athletes and Patriot missiles in Athens.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips.
O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
We begin this hour with the bloodiest attack to date in newly- sovereign Iraq. At least 68 dead, all of them Iraqis. Another 56 wounded in a suicide bombing outside a police recruiting post in Baquba, just north of Baghdad.
CNN's Matthew Chance has the latest for us -- Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Miles, this has been a day of bloodshed across Iraq.
We'll start with more details of that suicide car bombing in Baquba, just north of the Iraqi capitol, Baghdad.
There, eyewitnesses say absolute carnage. At least 68 people killed, according to the health ministry officials that we've spoken to.
This suicide bomber driving a van packed with explosives picked through a very busy market area in the center of Baquba, finding his way to the police station there, where many young recruits were waiting outside, waiting to enter that police station to join up with the new Iraqi police forces, detonating their explosives.
Amongst the killed, passersby as well, including 21 people on board a bus that just happened to be in the area as the explosion took place. All this, of course, coming just one month after the U.S. handed over sovereignty to the new Iraqi government, and that government is battling very hard indeed to try and keep a lid on this increasingly bloody insurgency -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Matthew Chance in Baghdad, thank you very much.
First it's by air, then by sea for Kerry, the soon to be Democrat nominee.
If you've been watching CNN you know the star of the Democratic convention has made his way from Philadelphia to Charlestown, Massachusetts, in shouting distance of FleetCenter in Boston.
CNN's Frank Buckley traveling with him in the not so swift boat, and there he is -- there is Frank Buckley amid the crowd now. Frank, go ahead.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, we're in Charlestown Navy Yard. You're right, the arrival of John Kerry having just taken place.
Let me go ahead and show you the senator here instead of me. He's right here in front of us greeting supporters who waited out here for the senator to arrive during his boat trip across the Boston Harbor here to Charlestown Navy Yard.
Let me show you some of the video of that trip over here. It was in a -- just a Boston Harbor cruise boat, but that really wasn't the point.
The point of this trip for Senator Kerry, along with 13 of his fellow Vietnam veterans, most of them his fellow swift boat crewmates, from his Vietnam experience, was to once again reinforce to voters that he has led men in war before, and he can do it again, as commander in chief.
The pictures that we saw of them coming over here designed to stay in the minds of voters right up to Election Day. Whether or not it will, remains to be seen.
Part of this because of the fact that polls continue to show that many voters still believe that it's President Bush who is best able to handle terrorism and the military conflict in Iraq.
This arrival here in Boston after a week of traveling across the U.S., and Senator Kerry spoke to the people who are gathered here upon his arrival.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This has been an amazing journey for me over the last few days. The whole thing has been an amazing journey.
From the beginning of reaching out to Americans and going into people's homes and having people just share their personal stories and hopes for our nation.
Nobody can ever properly give the honor due to that privilege, that gift of being able to listen to you and try to translate it into a vision that lifts our country up, that takes us to a better place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BUCKLEY: And looking in live now at Senator Kerry right here in front of us as he prepares to leave the Charlestown Navy Yard, signing autographs and thanking his supporters here before he steps out of public view for a number of hours.
Of course, his acceptance speech coming tomorrow evening in prime time. Senator Kerry expected to lay out broadly his vision of what he wants to do for America if he is, in fact, elected president.
So you see Senator Kerry getting ready to take off and continue to work and prepare on that speech -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Frank, how much of the speech is his own words and how much has been crafted by speechwriters?
BUCKLEY: Well, a couple of conflicting reports on that. I talked to one aide who said he has written it exclusively by himself in longhand, and we know that he has certainly worked on a lot of it in that sense, in that way. Have also heard that speechwriters have submitted drafts to him.
So, we don't know if it's come to him in the form of information that he incorporates into his working draft at the time, or if it was the other way around, if there was a skeleton written by a speechwriters and then he put into his own words and wrote around.
But I think it's -- I think it's fair to say that there are people who are contributing to this speech and that Senator Kerry is doing a great deal of the writing on his own -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Frank Buckley at the Charlestown Navy Yard. Hope you get a chance to tour Ironsides and follow the freedom trail while you're there, Frank. Have a good day. All right -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, tonight the telegenic trial lawyer argues the case of a lifetime before a highly sympathetic hall of delegates and a supremely divided nation.
CNN's Elaine Quijano is tracking John Edwards in Boston -- Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon to you, Kyra.
Aides say that Senator John Edwards is spending the day in his hotel, the hotel behind me, in his hotel room, spending time with his family and putting the finishing touches on that acceptance speech.
We're told that the senator may go for a run inside on the treadmill later today, but otherwise primarily focusing on that speech.
But last night, the senator actually took a midnight tour of the FleetCenter, a chance for him to get familiar with the surroundings there, familiar with the stage.
He went behind the podium and did a mic check and while he was up there, he was asked how it felt to be there. He said it felt great and that his speech had been written already.
Now, Edwards knew what he was going to say from almost the moment John Kerry chose him as his running mate according to a senior campaign official. He will lay out why he thinks John Kerry should be president, and he's also expected to mention Iraq.
We also anticipate hearing a familiar theme from the primaries, the concept of two Americas. Now, Senator Edwards says that he wants to reach out to people in the same way that he did during the primary in Iowa when he visited people's homes, sat with them in their living rooms.
That is how he wants to connect with people tonight. Now as for the senator's health, he actually had been nursing a cold. On Monday, he had to cancel a campaign appearance because they said that he needed to rest his voice. However, when asked about it last night, the senator said his voice was OK and that he will be ready to go tonight -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Elaine Quijano tracking John Edwards there in Boston. We'll check in with you again. Thanks so much.
And don't miss a minute of CNN's prime time coverage of the Democratic National Convention.
It all begins at 7 Eastern with Anderson Cooper, followed by Wolf Blitzer and Larry King.
At 10 we'll hear from vice presidential nominee in waiting, John Edwards. Aaron Brown has post game and Larry King will take us live through midnight.
O'BRIEN: Time out now for Ilana Wexler. She can't vote, but the 12-year-old founder of kidsforkerry.org sure knows how to push the buttons of a partisan audience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ILANA WEXLER, KIDSFORKERRY.ORG: When our vice president had a disagreement with a Democratic senator, he used a really bad word.
If I said that -- If I said that word, I would be put in a time out. I think he should be put in a time out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Makes you want to sing something from "Annie," doesn't it? The youngest speaker at this year's DNC was personally invited by another outspoken Democratic woman, a few years her senior, Teresa Heinz Kerry.
PHILLIPS: Just a few years. Well, if you're away from your TV, you can still hear the DNC coverage.
CNN radio's John Lisk and I will be anchoring for CNN Radio. Two thousand affiliates, I am told, in the U.S. and overseas -- what? -- No radio, you say? Hey, that's OK. Because, guess what? You can log on to cnn.com to hear and see all the prime time action on the CNN Radio web stream.
You have absolutely no excuse not to be plugged into CNN in some way, shape, or manner.
O'BRIEN: Hey, Kyra, got a question for you. When you do the radio, do you put your hand over your ear like this?
PHILLIPS: And I have that big microphone like Larry King.
O'BRIEN: OK, good.
PHILLIPS: Yes, with the big headset.
O'BRIEN: Outstanding. All right.
PHILLIPS: Cleveland, I'm taking your call.
O'BRIEN: Hello, Cleveland.
PHILLIPS: Hello, Cleveland.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, will your vote be counted in November?
Trouble with new systems put in place after the Florida recount nightmare are now raising questions about whether electronic voting might be worse than -- and it's hard to even say it -- worse than the hanging chads?
And later the search for clues in the disappearance of Lori Hacking. We're live, of course, from Salt Like City. The latest on that case.
And a record high jump for oil prices sends the stock market tanking. Will they jack up prices at the gas pump? We'll check it out ahead on LIVE FROM.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, remember the Florida recount debacle in 2000? How could you forget these faces? Confusion magnified. Sherlock Holmes images. The group squint. The hanging chads. Well, guess what? Fear and loathing lingers over Florida once again. The reason?
Computer crash wiping out all the records. What's going on? David Cardwell, election attorney. You know him well.
He remembers the 2000 recount and is now having haunting flashbacks. He joins us live from Orlando.
David, great to see you. It's been a while.
DAVID CARDWELL, ELECTION ATTORNEY: It's been a while, but seems like deja vu all over again.
PHILLIPS: There you go. We'll probably be spending a lot of time together all the way through November. What happened?
CARDWELL: Well, we solved some problems and we've created new ones. We've got rid of the hanging chads and the votomatics and some of the other problems we found during the 36 days in 2000, but now we have touchscreen voting machines that don't have an audit trail; we've had some data crashes that have caused some concerns about the validity of the data, and we've had an increasing number of under votes on touchscreen machines, which raises the question of whether they're being properly used by the voters.
PHILLIPS: So let's explain to viewers exactly what this means. The backup system crashed, so there's absolutely no record of what happened since when?
CARDWELL: Well, the crash you're referring to was in Miami Dade County -- it was their backup data for the 2002 statewide elections plus several municipal elections.
They store it on flashcards on the day of the election and then they're supposed to transfer it to some other media to store it permanently.
Well, the other media crashed and it corrupted the data. So other than the hard copy printouts from those elections, we don't have any electronic data that you can go and check if you wanted to evaluate the election results.
PHILLIPS: So now you have an election around the corner, come November, what does this mean? Are you concerned? Could this be a pretty big catastrophe come November?
CARDWELL: Well, I'm sure that the election officials -- both state and in the counties -- are working hard to try to correct the problems. I'd say the good news -- if there is -- from this is that we are finding out the problems before the election, whereas in 2000 we found out about them after the election.
But they're just seems to be a recurring different problem every week or so something else goes wrong, and it's -- I think causing the public to be concerned about whether their votes will in fact be counted when they go to the polls this fall.
PHILLIPS: Because right now because of the system crashing the vote -- you can see that the vote was recorded but not how it was cast, is that right?
CARDWELL: Well, correct. We still have to preserve the secret ballot, but you can't get into the details of under votes and number of people who have voted in a precinct and the under vote is something that causes me some concern.
We had an election in Broward County, infamous Broward, just north of Miami with a single legislative race. It was decided by 12 votes and with only one race on the ballot there were over 100 under votes which meant that voters went to the polls and their votes were not counted, or they didn't vote. Which indicates that we still need a lot of voter training to explain these new systems to them.
PHILLIPS: All right, so let's say these new systems go forward for November. And the systems crash. Are you even able to do a recount?
CARDWELL: Well, as of right now, no. The division of elections has issued a rule that in the event of a recount which touchscreen machines all they do is just repeat what they've already announced as the results because there's nothing else to do. There's no audit trail, there's no paper trail.
There is an administrative proceeding pending in Tallahassee now where several groups have challenged that and they want these machines to be retrofitted with audit trails.
PHILLIPS: What about corrective software?
CARDWELL: Well, we're correcting the software every time a problem comes up, but it sounds like you know what often we encounter ourselves when our PCs crash and we find we got to go get a security patch. It seems like we're getting a new patch done fairly frequent basis for the voting machines as well.
PHILLIPS: Well, you kind of wonder if we should go back to the ballot system because at least with chads you've got a paper trail, right?
CARDWELL: You do, and we have 15 counties that use touchscreen. The other 52 use paper ballots or what's called optical scan where you mark a ballot and it's a paper ballot and you run it through a scanner. So there you get sort of the convenience of computerized counting, but you still have a paper ballot you can always go to.
Of course then you get in to -- if you'll remember from 2000 what was the voter's intent.
PHILLIPS: How could we ever forget? Well, David Cardwell, I always want you to stay in business being an election attorney but I really hope that things don't get as crazy come November.
We'll definitely follow the situation. Thanks, David.
CARDWELL: OK.
PHILLIPS: All right -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right. I don't have one, but Wolf Blitzer does. Where did he get that high-tech little headset thing that kind of looks like a mole sometimes? And why didn't Hillary Clinton want to wear one, I wonder?
We're getting the goods on the convention gear ahead on LIVE FROM.
And securing the skies over the Olympic Games. A Patriot called into service in Athens.
And, Michael Jackson at the mall? After a delay in his trial, he decides to do a little shopping and we'll tell you all about that. There's some news for you. It's all ahead on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Leery of Lariam? Well the V.A. is raising red flags over the anti-malaria drug given to thousands of U.S. forces. A drug with potential side effects may include mental illness, violence, even suicide.
Well, a Defense Department study is underway, and the V.A. is urging clinics to be on the lookout for Lariam complications. Meanwhile, the medication maybe an issue in the ongoing case of three soldiers charged with pushing Iraqis into a river.
O'BRIEN: News around the world now, a big setback in Afghanistan. Doctors without Borders is heading for the border, pulling out of the country after 24 years. The Nobel prize-winning outfit sites safety concerns in the government study to find the people who killed five of its workers this year.
Rain falling again in flood-ravaged Bangladesh. Four weeks of flooding have killed about 1100 people across South Asia. Thousands of survivors are searching for shelter, trying to protect themselves from water-borne illnesses.
And McDonald's is jumping on the health bandwagon overseas. The world's biggest fast food chain unveiled its new happy meals for adults in Europe today. The Happy Meals come with items such as water, fruit or salads.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: John Kerry arrives in Boston for his acceptance speech tomorrow night at the Democratic Convention. Kerry and 13 former crewmates crossed Boston Harbor aboard the Lulu E (ph) a not so swift boat. Kerry was joined by crewmates of that swift boat he commanded in Vietnam.
Now, another day of bloody bombings and fighting in Iraq has taken the lives of more than 100 people. At least 68 died in a suicide car bombing in Baquba. At least 42 are dead in fighting in south-central Iraq and in the town of Ramadi two U.S. service members were killed when their camp was attacked ten others were injured.
At the Olympics in Athens, Greece unprecedented security will include Patriot missiles from the United States. Security is ramping up. Truck scanners are in place. Seventy thousand officers will patrol the ground with fighter jets in the sky when the games begin next month.
Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 28, 2004 - 12:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Deadly attack. A car bomb on a busy Iraq street, a violent sing of instability one month after the U.S. handed over control.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Two if by sea. John Kerry boats into Boston Harbor, cruising into the convention, hoping to capture votes in a hotly contested race.
O'BRIEN: Will your vote count this time around? Troubles with touchscreens in Florida raise questions about new e-voting systems. We may be longing for chads.
PHILLIPS: Securing the Olympic Games. International athletes and Patriot missiles in Athens.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips.
O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
We begin this hour with the bloodiest attack to date in newly- sovereign Iraq. At least 68 dead, all of them Iraqis. Another 56 wounded in a suicide bombing outside a police recruiting post in Baquba, just north of Baghdad.
CNN's Matthew Chance has the latest for us -- Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Miles, this has been a day of bloodshed across Iraq.
We'll start with more details of that suicide car bombing in Baquba, just north of the Iraqi capitol, Baghdad.
There, eyewitnesses say absolute carnage. At least 68 people killed, according to the health ministry officials that we've spoken to.
This suicide bomber driving a van packed with explosives picked through a very busy market area in the center of Baquba, finding his way to the police station there, where many young recruits were waiting outside, waiting to enter that police station to join up with the new Iraqi police forces, detonating their explosives.
Amongst the killed, passersby as well, including 21 people on board a bus that just happened to be in the area as the explosion took place. All this, of course, coming just one month after the U.S. handed over sovereignty to the new Iraqi government, and that government is battling very hard indeed to try and keep a lid on this increasingly bloody insurgency -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Matthew Chance in Baghdad, thank you very much.
First it's by air, then by sea for Kerry, the soon to be Democrat nominee.
If you've been watching CNN you know the star of the Democratic convention has made his way from Philadelphia to Charlestown, Massachusetts, in shouting distance of FleetCenter in Boston.
CNN's Frank Buckley traveling with him in the not so swift boat, and there he is -- there is Frank Buckley amid the crowd now. Frank, go ahead.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, we're in Charlestown Navy Yard. You're right, the arrival of John Kerry having just taken place.
Let me go ahead and show you the senator here instead of me. He's right here in front of us greeting supporters who waited out here for the senator to arrive during his boat trip across the Boston Harbor here to Charlestown Navy Yard.
Let me show you some of the video of that trip over here. It was in a -- just a Boston Harbor cruise boat, but that really wasn't the point.
The point of this trip for Senator Kerry, along with 13 of his fellow Vietnam veterans, most of them his fellow swift boat crewmates, from his Vietnam experience, was to once again reinforce to voters that he has led men in war before, and he can do it again, as commander in chief.
The pictures that we saw of them coming over here designed to stay in the minds of voters right up to Election Day. Whether or not it will, remains to be seen.
Part of this because of the fact that polls continue to show that many voters still believe that it's President Bush who is best able to handle terrorism and the military conflict in Iraq.
This arrival here in Boston after a week of traveling across the U.S., and Senator Kerry spoke to the people who are gathered here upon his arrival.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This has been an amazing journey for me over the last few days. The whole thing has been an amazing journey.
From the beginning of reaching out to Americans and going into people's homes and having people just share their personal stories and hopes for our nation.
Nobody can ever properly give the honor due to that privilege, that gift of being able to listen to you and try to translate it into a vision that lifts our country up, that takes us to a better place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BUCKLEY: And looking in live now at Senator Kerry right here in front of us as he prepares to leave the Charlestown Navy Yard, signing autographs and thanking his supporters here before he steps out of public view for a number of hours.
Of course, his acceptance speech coming tomorrow evening in prime time. Senator Kerry expected to lay out broadly his vision of what he wants to do for America if he is, in fact, elected president.
So you see Senator Kerry getting ready to take off and continue to work and prepare on that speech -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Frank, how much of the speech is his own words and how much has been crafted by speechwriters?
BUCKLEY: Well, a couple of conflicting reports on that. I talked to one aide who said he has written it exclusively by himself in longhand, and we know that he has certainly worked on a lot of it in that sense, in that way. Have also heard that speechwriters have submitted drafts to him.
So, we don't know if it's come to him in the form of information that he incorporates into his working draft at the time, or if it was the other way around, if there was a skeleton written by a speechwriters and then he put into his own words and wrote around.
But I think it's -- I think it's fair to say that there are people who are contributing to this speech and that Senator Kerry is doing a great deal of the writing on his own -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Frank Buckley at the Charlestown Navy Yard. Hope you get a chance to tour Ironsides and follow the freedom trail while you're there, Frank. Have a good day. All right -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, tonight the telegenic trial lawyer argues the case of a lifetime before a highly sympathetic hall of delegates and a supremely divided nation.
CNN's Elaine Quijano is tracking John Edwards in Boston -- Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon to you, Kyra.
Aides say that Senator John Edwards is spending the day in his hotel, the hotel behind me, in his hotel room, spending time with his family and putting the finishing touches on that acceptance speech.
We're told that the senator may go for a run inside on the treadmill later today, but otherwise primarily focusing on that speech.
But last night, the senator actually took a midnight tour of the FleetCenter, a chance for him to get familiar with the surroundings there, familiar with the stage.
He went behind the podium and did a mic check and while he was up there, he was asked how it felt to be there. He said it felt great and that his speech had been written already.
Now, Edwards knew what he was going to say from almost the moment John Kerry chose him as his running mate according to a senior campaign official. He will lay out why he thinks John Kerry should be president, and he's also expected to mention Iraq.
We also anticipate hearing a familiar theme from the primaries, the concept of two Americas. Now, Senator Edwards says that he wants to reach out to people in the same way that he did during the primary in Iowa when he visited people's homes, sat with them in their living rooms.
That is how he wants to connect with people tonight. Now as for the senator's health, he actually had been nursing a cold. On Monday, he had to cancel a campaign appearance because they said that he needed to rest his voice. However, when asked about it last night, the senator said his voice was OK and that he will be ready to go tonight -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Elaine Quijano tracking John Edwards there in Boston. We'll check in with you again. Thanks so much.
And don't miss a minute of CNN's prime time coverage of the Democratic National Convention.
It all begins at 7 Eastern with Anderson Cooper, followed by Wolf Blitzer and Larry King.
At 10 we'll hear from vice presidential nominee in waiting, John Edwards. Aaron Brown has post game and Larry King will take us live through midnight.
O'BRIEN: Time out now for Ilana Wexler. She can't vote, but the 12-year-old founder of kidsforkerry.org sure knows how to push the buttons of a partisan audience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ILANA WEXLER, KIDSFORKERRY.ORG: When our vice president had a disagreement with a Democratic senator, he used a really bad word.
If I said that -- If I said that word, I would be put in a time out. I think he should be put in a time out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Makes you want to sing something from "Annie," doesn't it? The youngest speaker at this year's DNC was personally invited by another outspoken Democratic woman, a few years her senior, Teresa Heinz Kerry.
PHILLIPS: Just a few years. Well, if you're away from your TV, you can still hear the DNC coverage.
CNN radio's John Lisk and I will be anchoring for CNN Radio. Two thousand affiliates, I am told, in the U.S. and overseas -- what? -- No radio, you say? Hey, that's OK. Because, guess what? You can log on to cnn.com to hear and see all the prime time action on the CNN Radio web stream.
You have absolutely no excuse not to be plugged into CNN in some way, shape, or manner.
O'BRIEN: Hey, Kyra, got a question for you. When you do the radio, do you put your hand over your ear like this?
PHILLIPS: And I have that big microphone like Larry King.
O'BRIEN: OK, good.
PHILLIPS: Yes, with the big headset.
O'BRIEN: Outstanding. All right.
PHILLIPS: Cleveland, I'm taking your call.
O'BRIEN: Hello, Cleveland.
PHILLIPS: Hello, Cleveland.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, will your vote be counted in November?
Trouble with new systems put in place after the Florida recount nightmare are now raising questions about whether electronic voting might be worse than -- and it's hard to even say it -- worse than the hanging chads?
And later the search for clues in the disappearance of Lori Hacking. We're live, of course, from Salt Like City. The latest on that case.
And a record high jump for oil prices sends the stock market tanking. Will they jack up prices at the gas pump? We'll check it out ahead on LIVE FROM.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, remember the Florida recount debacle in 2000? How could you forget these faces? Confusion magnified. Sherlock Holmes images. The group squint. The hanging chads. Well, guess what? Fear and loathing lingers over Florida once again. The reason?
Computer crash wiping out all the records. What's going on? David Cardwell, election attorney. You know him well.
He remembers the 2000 recount and is now having haunting flashbacks. He joins us live from Orlando.
David, great to see you. It's been a while.
DAVID CARDWELL, ELECTION ATTORNEY: It's been a while, but seems like deja vu all over again.
PHILLIPS: There you go. We'll probably be spending a lot of time together all the way through November. What happened?
CARDWELL: Well, we solved some problems and we've created new ones. We've got rid of the hanging chads and the votomatics and some of the other problems we found during the 36 days in 2000, but now we have touchscreen voting machines that don't have an audit trail; we've had some data crashes that have caused some concerns about the validity of the data, and we've had an increasing number of under votes on touchscreen machines, which raises the question of whether they're being properly used by the voters.
PHILLIPS: So let's explain to viewers exactly what this means. The backup system crashed, so there's absolutely no record of what happened since when?
CARDWELL: Well, the crash you're referring to was in Miami Dade County -- it was their backup data for the 2002 statewide elections plus several municipal elections.
They store it on flashcards on the day of the election and then they're supposed to transfer it to some other media to store it permanently.
Well, the other media crashed and it corrupted the data. So other than the hard copy printouts from those elections, we don't have any electronic data that you can go and check if you wanted to evaluate the election results.
PHILLIPS: So now you have an election around the corner, come November, what does this mean? Are you concerned? Could this be a pretty big catastrophe come November?
CARDWELL: Well, I'm sure that the election officials -- both state and in the counties -- are working hard to try to correct the problems. I'd say the good news -- if there is -- from this is that we are finding out the problems before the election, whereas in 2000 we found out about them after the election.
But they're just seems to be a recurring different problem every week or so something else goes wrong, and it's -- I think causing the public to be concerned about whether their votes will in fact be counted when they go to the polls this fall.
PHILLIPS: Because right now because of the system crashing the vote -- you can see that the vote was recorded but not how it was cast, is that right?
CARDWELL: Well, correct. We still have to preserve the secret ballot, but you can't get into the details of under votes and number of people who have voted in a precinct and the under vote is something that causes me some concern.
We had an election in Broward County, infamous Broward, just north of Miami with a single legislative race. It was decided by 12 votes and with only one race on the ballot there were over 100 under votes which meant that voters went to the polls and their votes were not counted, or they didn't vote. Which indicates that we still need a lot of voter training to explain these new systems to them.
PHILLIPS: All right, so let's say these new systems go forward for November. And the systems crash. Are you even able to do a recount?
CARDWELL: Well, as of right now, no. The division of elections has issued a rule that in the event of a recount which touchscreen machines all they do is just repeat what they've already announced as the results because there's nothing else to do. There's no audit trail, there's no paper trail.
There is an administrative proceeding pending in Tallahassee now where several groups have challenged that and they want these machines to be retrofitted with audit trails.
PHILLIPS: What about corrective software?
CARDWELL: Well, we're correcting the software every time a problem comes up, but it sounds like you know what often we encounter ourselves when our PCs crash and we find we got to go get a security patch. It seems like we're getting a new patch done fairly frequent basis for the voting machines as well.
PHILLIPS: Well, you kind of wonder if we should go back to the ballot system because at least with chads you've got a paper trail, right?
CARDWELL: You do, and we have 15 counties that use touchscreen. The other 52 use paper ballots or what's called optical scan where you mark a ballot and it's a paper ballot and you run it through a scanner. So there you get sort of the convenience of computerized counting, but you still have a paper ballot you can always go to.
Of course then you get in to -- if you'll remember from 2000 what was the voter's intent.
PHILLIPS: How could we ever forget? Well, David Cardwell, I always want you to stay in business being an election attorney but I really hope that things don't get as crazy come November.
We'll definitely follow the situation. Thanks, David.
CARDWELL: OK.
PHILLIPS: All right -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right. I don't have one, but Wolf Blitzer does. Where did he get that high-tech little headset thing that kind of looks like a mole sometimes? And why didn't Hillary Clinton want to wear one, I wonder?
We're getting the goods on the convention gear ahead on LIVE FROM.
And securing the skies over the Olympic Games. A Patriot called into service in Athens.
And, Michael Jackson at the mall? After a delay in his trial, he decides to do a little shopping and we'll tell you all about that. There's some news for you. It's all ahead on LIVE FROM.
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PHILLIPS: Leery of Lariam? Well the V.A. is raising red flags over the anti-malaria drug given to thousands of U.S. forces. A drug with potential side effects may include mental illness, violence, even suicide.
Well, a Defense Department study is underway, and the V.A. is urging clinics to be on the lookout for Lariam complications. Meanwhile, the medication maybe an issue in the ongoing case of three soldiers charged with pushing Iraqis into a river.
O'BRIEN: News around the world now, a big setback in Afghanistan. Doctors without Borders is heading for the border, pulling out of the country after 24 years. The Nobel prize-winning outfit sites safety concerns in the government study to find the people who killed five of its workers this year.
Rain falling again in flood-ravaged Bangladesh. Four weeks of flooding have killed about 1100 people across South Asia. Thousands of survivors are searching for shelter, trying to protect themselves from water-borne illnesses.
And McDonald's is jumping on the health bandwagon overseas. The world's biggest fast food chain unveiled its new happy meals for adults in Europe today. The Happy Meals come with items such as water, fruit or salads.
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O'BRIEN: John Kerry arrives in Boston for his acceptance speech tomorrow night at the Democratic Convention. Kerry and 13 former crewmates crossed Boston Harbor aboard the Lulu E (ph) a not so swift boat. Kerry was joined by crewmates of that swift boat he commanded in Vietnam.
Now, another day of bloody bombings and fighting in Iraq has taken the lives of more than 100 people. At least 68 died in a suicide car bombing in Baquba. At least 42 are dead in fighting in south-central Iraq and in the town of Ramadi two U.S. service members were killed when their camp was attacked ten others were injured.
At the Olympics in Athens, Greece unprecedented security will include Patriot missiles from the United States. Security is ramping up. Truck scanners are in place. Seventy thousand officers will patrol the ground with fighter jets in the sky when the games begin next month.
Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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