State weighs plan to create touch screen ballot copies
Those demanding a true "paper trail" needed for recounts say this idea falls short, however.
By JONI JAMES
Published October 13, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - Paper copies of each ballot from touch screen machines would be printed and compared with machine tallies if Florida sees another razor-thin election Nov. 2, under a new rule Secretary of State Glenda Hood is considering.
The proposal, made public Tuesday, is "a work in progress," said Hood's general counsel, Richard Perez.
It comes seven weeks after a judge ruled Hood erred when she decided manual recounts of touch screen machines were unnecessary.
Under state law, manual recounts are required when candidates' vote totals are within one-quarter of 1 percent of each other. The judge ordered Hood to write a new rule.
The new proposal is similar to procedures followed by Broward County, where a close special legislative election in January prompted county election officials to print out so-called "ballot images" and count them by hand.
Critics, however, say such technology is still inferior to requiring the machines to create a verifiable paper trail because the ballot images reflect only what is in the machine's memory, not the voter's intent.
Hood's rule falls far short of what critics - labor unions, the American Civil Liberties Union and U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton - have sought.
They want a paper version of the electronic ballot printed that a voter can see to ensure that the machine worked properly.
Perez unveiled the proposal at the end of an hourlong, tense meeting. The unions, ACLU and Wexler's aide offered to drop their legal challenges if Hood agrees to federal court oversight of Florida's 2004 election tallies at precincts using touch screen machines.
They also demanded that Hood push to require, by the 2006 election, that all touch screen machines produce a verifiable paper trail.
Hood's senior staff declined to comment on the proposal directly, though Deputy Secretary of State Alia Faraj expressed skepticism afterward: "So federal judges would run the election? Yeah."
