Paper trail in Florida goes to court....St. Pete Times this morning...

[Sancho]

Key battle for voter paper trail goes to court
Sarasota County officials have concerns about the drafting of a referendum question on the security of touch screen machines.
By ALISA ULFERTS, Times Staff Writer
Published September 11, 2006

Six years after most of the furor over butterfly ballots, pregnant chad and razor-thin recounts was laid to rest, a ghost of the 2000 presidential election still haunts election officials in parts of the state: the paper trail..."What we're doing is a landmark for Florida," said Kindra Muntz, chairwoman of the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections, or SAFE...

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/11/State/Key_battle_for_voter_.shtml

:-)

[flyarm]

1. good deal..Kindra is wonderful!! she is working so hard at her

own $$ to fight for our votes in fla..she is a remarkable woman!!

fly

[acmejack]

2. Good news from Sarasota!

[Sancho]

4. I thought it was ironic that Sarasota was the Pet Goat book reading...

during 911 and they have been pretty active in court over federal and state elections.

Here (Clearwater-2004), my wife and I witnessed a machine that kept "changing" votes. My wife protested on the spot and they took the machine out of the line...at least temporarily. The poll workers acted like she was crazy. She said she voted for Betty Castor (D for Congress) and "checked" at the end of the voting and it was changed to Martinez (R). She loudly said, "All I want to do is vote for Castor and it keeps changing it back." They gave her another chip...and it did the same thing. Then a "technician" removed the machine.

If there is no paper trail in Florida, the elections will be rigged for sure.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Can't they use the equal protection arguement?

since some counties use paper ballots and some counties don't, not all votes and/or voters are not being treated equally.

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. I don't beleieve that any counties in FL are still using paper ballots,

except for absentee voting. I could be wrong. Does anyone know for sure?

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Most of the REP dominated counties

have paper ballots with optical scanners.

I live in Alachua Co which is a DEM stronghold but we had a good SOE and we also have paper ballots with optical scanners.

[nosillies]

6. Interesting thought

In my county, I was quite thankful to have the choice as to how I would cast my vote. In other areas, voter were of course not so lucky.

However, to argue disenfranchisement, one would have to start from the proven basis that certain voting methods (paper-trail-less electronic machines, e.g.) were unfair and did not work. Of course, in any RATIONAL world, this would have already taken place. But...... Plus, there's always the option of absentee voting.

That's not to say that a lawsuit on these grounds couldn't be pursued. It might not work, but the publicity would be invaluable. I know if I had not had another option, I'd have been pissed.