Jan 31, 2007 10:14 pm US/Eastern
Fla. Will Focus On Eliminating Touch-Screen Voting
by Michele Gillen
TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) ―
Gov. Charlie Crist will propose spending millions of dollars to ensure that Florida voting machines leave a paper trail in response to complaints about touch-screen balloting, an aide to U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler said Tuesday. However, not everyone is happy with the solution proposed.
Wexler, D-Boca Raton, has been a leading critic of electronic voting machines that were touted as an answer to vote-counting problems that emerged during Florida's 2000 presidential recount. The touch-screen machines, though, have been the focus of a contested Florida congressional race after they indicated about 18,000 Sarasota County voters failed to cast a ballot in the November 2006 contest. Now the state is thinking of instituting an optical scanner card system.
Wexler has spoken frequently with Crist about the matter and will join the Republican governor when he announces the voting machine spending proposal Thursday in Palm Beach County, said Eric Johnson, the congressman's chief of staff.
"He's definitely taking a big, big step," Johnson said. "We do think it's a big deal."
Crist spokeswoman Erin Isaac declined to offer either a confirmation or denial. The governor has been releasing various parts of his budget proposal to the Legislature this week.
But not all groups are happy with this solution. Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, a voting rights activist and Miami lawyer says the optical card system isn't appropriate for voters who speak other languages or the disabled. However, some officials suggest keeping the touch screen voting machines for these special needs voters.
"If we think that DRE's (touch-screen machines) are not good for the regular old voter, why should they be good for people with disabilities," said Rodriguez-Taseff.
Officials suggest connecting printers to the touch-screen machines to leave a paper trail.
Johnson was unsure whether the counties would be given a choice or required to replace their touch-screen equipment with machines that leave a paper record. The only type currently certified in Florida that leave a paper trail are machines that scan paper ballots. The optical scanners are used in most Florida counties.
Florida outlawed punch card machines after ballots with partly punched-out hanging chads proved difficult to decipher during the 2000 recount. The national election was decided when President Bush, brother of then-Gov. Jeb Bush, won Florida by only 537 votes.
Katherine Harris, then Florida's secretary of state, presided over the recount and two years later was elected to Congress in the 13th District.
A Republican, she gave up the seat last year to mount an unsuccessful challenge to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. Another Republican, Vern Buchanan, won the seat by only 369 votes but the result is being contested by his opponent, Democrat Christine Jennings.
American Civil Liberties Union executive director Howard Simon said the state should upgrade touch-screen machines with paper trails instead of switching to optical scanners. That would protect the rights of disabled and language minority voters who rely on the electronic machines.
"There are systems out there that are the best of both worlds," Simon said.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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