Florida BBV: 3 most-populous counties push for ballot paper trail

[gristy]

Florida loosens Bushco's grip... and catches a breath of fresh air!

By Connie Piloto, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 27, 2004

WEST PALM BEACH -- Florida's three most populous counties took a rare, unified stance Monday, calling for the state legislature to require a ballot-by-ballot paper record of votes cast on electronic voting machines.

Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade county commissioners -- dissatisfied after spending millions on touch-screen voting machines since the tumultuous 2000 presidential election -- agreed paper printouts are the only way to instill public confidence in touch-screen ballots.

The tri-county coalition voted unanimously to send state legislators a letter endorsing a paper trail.

"I hope this gets the legislative body to understand what we're concerned about," said Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson, who raised the issue at a meeting Monday.

There has been considerable reason for worry. When the touch-screen machines debuted in 2002 Florida gubernatorial elections, the results were tainted by many non-votes tallied in Broward and Miami-Dade. The problem surfaced again in a Jan. 6 special election for a Broward and Palm Beach county state House seat.

That race was decided by 12 votes -- with 137 voters casting blank ballots, or "under-votes."

more: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/tuesday/news_04518e8231cb02880029.html

[JPace]

1. This is excellent news.....

now I hope they can get that paper
ballot installed before the 2004
election.

[arcane1]

2. now if they can just restore the voter rolls...

we might start to resemble a democracy again!

[sonias]

3. It isn't going to happen

Read the full story.

"Many of Florida's county election supervisors say touch screens work fine, that there's no need for a paper record. Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, the state's top elections official, said she supports the supervisors' position."

That sounds like to me the repuke controlled Sec of State is playing the Katherine Harris role this time. "We just can't accommodate the legal counting of all the votes. We're only count the ones that guarantee bu$h wins Florida."

Don't expect that this issue is going to be solved by the '04 election.

However I am glad to see the issue coming up and I hope that those 3 counties continue to make an issue of verifiable e-voting with paper receipts. We won't have this thing fixed by '04, but if we continue to scream then maybe, just maybe the repukes will not try to out right steal this election via fraud and hacking these insecure systems.

Sonia

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. The local supervisors of elections

have a lot of autonomy in Florida. They can put in whatever system they wish. The state can not mandate what the counties do in this regard. For example, in Alachua County we still have paper ballots. When you vote you get a ballot and a pencil, real high tech. Then you feed your ballot into an optical scanner where it is stored. If a recount is necessary, it is a simple matter to run the ballots back through the scanner and compare the results. Also, the scanner are programmed to reject your ballot if you don't fill it out properly. You are then given the opportunity to fix it. Too bad most of the other countries in Florida no longer have paper ballots.

What happened in WPB and Broward last month, was that they could not comply with the law because they did not have paper ballots. Florida law states that when there is less than 1% difference in an election, then a recount is required. You can not do a real recount on a touch screen system.

So the SOE from these 3 counties need to go tell Glenda Hood to go shove and implement whatever changes they deem necessary to assure the voters that their votes will be counted.

[Rebellious Republican]

4. Florida DUers, send an email in support to Division of Elections

Florida Dept. of State, here is the link. Now I know there are a bunch of us here, lets flood them with emails and annoy the shit out of Jeb!!!!
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/contactus/emailForm.shtml

:kick:

[BeFree]

5. We're getting there

We've come a long way, and there is still a long way to go, but we're getting there.

Paper ballots are all we are asking for and we will get them someday.

[NashVegas]

6. Sun-Sentinel Link - Lawsuit Court Date

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cpwexler27jan27,0,291258.story?coll=sfla-news-broward

A hearing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Feb. 6 in U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler's lawsuit against Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore and Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood.