Push begins for paper backups on new electronic voting machines
By Anthony Man
Staff writer
January 14, 2004
Spurred by a contested result in last week's special election for state House, local leaders on two fronts advanced the effort to create a paper backup for electronic voting machines.
Palm Beach County commissioners voted after contentious debate Tuesday to ask the Legislature to authorize and hopefully pay for ballot printers for electronic voting machines.
Also Tuesday, the most outspoken proponent of a voting machine paper trail U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton wrote to Gov. Jeb Bush asking him to push for legislation requiring the printers.
"Florida faces the very real possibility of another national election debacle," Wexler wrote.
The requests from the commission and Wexler were prompted by the results of last week's special election to fill a Florida House seat in Palm Beach and Broward counties. Even though no other race was on the ballot, the voting machines showed that 137 people who went to the polls that day cast no ballots. All but three of the so-called undervotes were in Broward County.
What's more, the declared winner, Ellyn Bogdanoff, had only 12 votes more than the second-place finisher, Oliver Parker.
"Uncertainty now clouds the election results," Wexler said. He and County Commissioner Burt Aaronson, a close political ally, said the developments point to voting machine problems.
Aaronson said he didn't think 137 people would show up to vote and then not cast a ballot. "I believe they voted and their votes were not counted," he said. "They didn't go in there to comb their hair and there was no urinal in there."
Alia Faraj, the governor's press secretary, said the touch-screen voting machines are accurate.
"Florida has implemented election reform that we believe is second to none," she said. "The machines that have been certified are secure against tampering and fraudulent manipulation. We're confident that they will be used successfully in the '04 primary and the general election."
The issue came up at Tuesday's County Commission meeting when Chairwoman Karen Marcus, one of three members of the elections Canvassing Board, asked County Attorney Denise Nieman to discuss post-election difficulties.
Nieman said the Canvassing Board couldn't conduct a recount after the close vote because there are no ballots to recount from the electronic machines and the state Division of Elections didn't develop rules for how election authorities should handle such cases. Eventually, Nieman concluded the only thing the Canvassing Board could do was certify the results as they came out of the machines.
"It's crazy," Nieman said. "I cannot believe we're in this position."
She and Marcus said the state Division of Elections should quickly develop rules for electronic voting machines.
Aaronson seized the opportunity and moved that the commission formally request legislation authorizing the printers. He'd like the state or federal governments to pay, but even if they won't, he thinks it's worth spending local tax money.
"This [the special election] proves that we should not to go into 2004 without a paper trail," Aaronson said. "We were the ones in the limelight in 2000. We were the ones under scrutiny. We were the ones ridiculed and laughed at."
With the loudest supporters of ballot printers generally Democrats who think the 2000 election was stolen by Republicans in favor of President Bush, many Republicans have been reluctant to go along with printers.
At the County Commission, all three Democrats Aaronson, Jeff Koons and Addie Greene favored printer legislation. Republican Tony Masilotti, a close ally of Aaronson, also voted for the printers.
Republicans Marcus and Warren Newell voted no. Commissioner Mary McCarty, a former Republican county chairwoman, had just left the meeting to attend an announcement in Boca Raton about the anthrax-contaminated former American Media Inc. building.
Marcus said she was skeptical because she wasn't sure it was technically possible to get printers that would work with the voting equipment.
Sequoia Voting Systems, the manufacturer of Palm Beach County's machines, has developed a printer, but it hasn't been certified by either the federal or state governments.
The printer would be mounted beside the touch screen and display the voter's ions behind glass so the voter could not touch, remove or alter the paper, the company's Web site explains. The system would allow the voter to confirm the ions are correct and then submit the ballot by using the touch-screen device.
The paper would then scroll inside the printer unit, creating a paper record. The company said there are extensive safeguards to ensure accuracy, but it would sell the printers to election authorities that want them.
The printers would cost about $500 each, said Alfie Charles, a Sequoia vice president. The total for Palm Beach County's 5,000 machines would be $2.5 million.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2905.
