Florida Embraces Paper
The lack of confidence stems from the botched 2000 presidential race and the still-disputed 2006 election for the House of Representatives seat for Florida's 13 congressional district, centered in Sarasota County, south of Tampa. Republican Vern Buchanan, certified the winner by 369 votes, has assumed the seat, but the House Administrative Committee is investigating the validity of his victory, which could potentially lead to his removal. Losing Democrat Christine Jennings brought the complaint and is also suing in state court for a new election, because Sarasota's machines failed to record an estimated 18,000 votes in the House race. Jennings applauded Crist's move "to remove the black eye that surrounds elections in Florida."
"This is the first time the state has stepped forward and told the counties we will pay for you to convert," said Sterling Ivey, spokesman for Florida's new Secretary of State, Kurt Browning, the former elections supervisor for Pasco County, immediately north of Tampa. Pasco is one of the counties that will be converting from paperless to paper trail machines, such as optical scanners that read ballots filled in by hand. Some counties may add printers to their existing touch-screens.
"Optical scan voting systems have a proven track record for accuracy in Florida's elections," Browning said. "Adding verification to touch-screen voting will provide a paper trail that can be utilized for any recount."
Florida has been one of 15 states, including Texas and Pennsylvania, that explicitly ban a paper trail in its electronic voting machines. Eighteen states actually using machines require them to have a paper trail. A few other states, like New York, will require a paper trail when they finally purchase new machines.
With 40-percent of the nation's voters using touch-screen machines, Florida's stand could draw imitators from states that don't want to be …"the next Florida." (Paperless Virginia dodged the label when former Senator George Allen abandoned a recount bid last year).
Gov. Crist expects his reform to slide through the Republican-controlled legislature and the state to complete the conversion in time for next November's elections. For now, Crist is enjoying a few "bravos" from activists.
"The debacle in the congressional race in Sarasota County was one of the worst problems in the country in the 2006 elections, and justice has still not been done for those voters," said Reggie Mitchell, legal counsel for People For the American Way. "The nightmare that began in 2000 for Florida voters won't be over until every citizen of this state can cast a vote that counts in every race on every ballot."