6 years after Bush Al Gore fiasco, Florida still trying to get it right
6 years after Bush Al Gore fiasco, Florida still trying to get it right
TALLAHASSEE -- When Florida's infamous punch-card ballots went the way of Al Gore's presidential hopes, many thought the state's voting problems had disappeared, too.
But six years later, policymakers are learning that the system still isn't perfect and more changes might be needed.
Confidence is now being shaken in the touch-screen voting machines that some counties chose to replace paper ballots. The issue is likely to come up when the Legislature convenes in March for its regular session.
Legislative leaders haven't committed to any particular fixes. Proposed legislation is only now starting to be filed, and none yet includes any major election overhauls. Some election requirements aren't in the law, but left to the individual counties, where 66 of 67 elections supervisors are chosen by voters.
A disputed congressional election in Sarasota County was the latest to raise suspicions for some voters that the electronic machines may have problems recording the right vote. For many, the problem isn't so much whether the devices work, but how difficult it is to know if they do or not since they don't create a paper trail.
"If this issue is not dealt with expediently, we will be faced with another possible blemish on Florida's already jaded voting history, with the 2008 presidential election on the horizon," said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
Problems in Sarasota
Sarasota County voters have already given up on touch screens. They voted last month to switch to machines that use paper ballots, coincidentally in the same election that caused the latest questions.
In the county, about 13 percent of those who voted appeared to ignore the congressional race between Democrat Christine Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan. Experts say that's an extremely high "undervote."
So far, a state investigation has found no evidence of problems with the machines, despite allegations from Jennings in a lawsuit that they lost thousands of votes. The probe continues, however. Most recently, state officials pulled computer chips from a random sample of the county's machines to analyze their programming source code.
Still, state lawmakers plan to revisit the changes pushed through in 2001, following the embarrassment of Bush v. Gore and the hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads that kept the nation from knowing for several weeks who the next president would be.
"We need to evaluate the whole picture," said Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, who will chair the Senate committee that deals with election law. "I'm not going to suggest [yet] what we're going to do. There's a lot out there, and it's way too soon to suggest what we might finally do."
Several groups are pushing for lawmakers to change the system.
People for the American Way Foundation has begun investigating the Jennings-Buchanan race and is involved in a lawsuit that seeks to compel the touch-screen maker to open up its software programming secrets to more scrutiny.
The company, Elections Systems & Software, says its machines worked properly and is fighting to keep the code from the public.
But foundation lawyer Reggie Mitchell said the case is also partly aimed at shedding light on the problem so policymakers might make a change.
"Whether [I'm] able, disabled, educated, uneducated, confused or not confused, it should be simple enough that if I want to vote for the candidate, that's the way my vote should register," Mitchell said.
Several options
One option would be to require touch-screen makers to create a paper ballot that would be saved for each vote.
Another would be to go the way voters in Sarasota County have and scrap touch-screens for the other type of system Florida allows, optical scanners. On those, voters use a pencil to fill in a bubble or arrow on a paper ballot, which is then fed through a scanner that reads it. Most of Florida's 67 counties use those -- only 15 used touch-screens in the November election.
But optical scanners and other paper ballots don't fully meet the needs of the disabled.
Federal law requires that all voters be able to vote without the help of another person. Touch-screens include audio options that allow for that.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-voting2306dec23,0,633672.story?track=rss
TALLAHASSEE -- When Florida's infamous punch-card ballots went the way of Al Gore's presidential hopes, many thought the state's voting problems had disappeared, too.
But six years later, policymakers are learning that the system still isn't perfect and more changes might be needed.
Confidence is now being shaken in the touch-screen voting machines that some counties chose to replace paper ballots. The issue is likely to come up when the Legislature convenes in March for its regular session.
Legislative leaders haven't committed to any particular fixes. Proposed legislation is only now starting to be filed, and none yet includes any major election overhauls. Some election requirements aren't in the law, but left to the individual counties, where 66 of 67 elections supervisors are chosen by voters.
A disputed congressional election in Sarasota County was the latest to raise suspicions for some voters that the electronic machines may have problems recording the right vote. For many, the problem isn't so much whether the devices work, but how difficult it is to know if they do or not since they don't create a paper trail.
"If this issue is not dealt with expediently, we will be faced with another possible blemish on Florida's already jaded voting history, with the 2008 presidential election on the horizon," said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
Problems in Sarasota
Sarasota County voters have already given up on touch screens. They voted last month to switch to machines that use paper ballots, coincidentally in the same election that caused the latest questions.
In the county, about 13 percent of those who voted appeared to ignore the congressional race between Democrat Christine Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan. Experts say that's an extremely high "undervote."
So far, a state investigation has found no evidence of problems with the machines, despite allegations from Jennings in a lawsuit that they lost thousands of votes. The probe continues, however. Most recently, state officials pulled computer chips from a random sample of the county's machines to analyze their programming source code.
Still, state lawmakers plan to revisit the changes pushed through in 2001, following the embarrassment of Bush v. Gore and the hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads that kept the nation from knowing for several weeks who the next president would be.
"We need to evaluate the whole picture," said Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, who will chair the Senate committee that deals with election law. "I'm not going to suggest [yet] what we're going to do. There's a lot out there, and it's way too soon to suggest what we might finally do."
Several groups are pushing for lawmakers to change the system.
People for the American Way Foundation has begun investigating the Jennings-Buchanan race and is involved in a lawsuit that seeks to compel the touch-screen maker to open up its software programming secrets to more scrutiny.
The company, Elections Systems & Software, says its machines worked properly and is fighting to keep the code from the public.
But foundation lawyer Reggie Mitchell said the case is also partly aimed at shedding light on the problem so policymakers might make a change.
"Whether [I'm] able, disabled, educated, uneducated, confused or not confused, it should be simple enough that if I want to vote for the candidate, that's the way my vote should register," Mitchell said.
Several options
One option would be to require touch-screen makers to create a paper ballot that would be saved for each vote.
Another would be to go the way voters in Sarasota County have and scrap touch-screens for the other type of system Florida allows, optical scanners. On those, voters use a pencil to fill in a bubble or arrow on a paper ballot, which is then fed through a scanner that reads it. Most of Florida's 67 counties use those -- only 15 used touch-screens in the November election.
But optical scanners and other paper ballots don't fully meet the needs of the disabled.
Federal law requires that all voters be able to vote without the help of another person. Touch-screens include audio options that allow for that.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-voting2306dec23,0,633672.story?track=rss
posted by presgore19 at 1:37 PM
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