New voting machines mandated

by Brad Buck
The Palatka Daily News

Putnam County may have to spend as much as $300,000 for touch-screen voting machines for either this fall's elections or the 2006 elections, Elections Supervisor Don Hersey said Monday.
That possibility grew out of a tentative federal court ruling in Duval County in January.
Fifty-two Florida counties could be affected by the preliminary ruling requiring Duval County to provide blind and disabled people with voting machines that have an audio system, a state election official said Thursday.
Jennifer Nash, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office, said officials believe U.S. District Judge Wayne Alley's ruling will affect every county that uses optical-scan voting machines, possibly costing them millions.
Only 15 Florida's 67 counties have touch-screen voting systems, which contain an audio system but don't leave a paper trail so votes can be recounted. Many counties purchased new systems after the 2000 presidential election recount and the state's subsequent ban on punch-card balloting.
Doug Baldridge, the lead attorney representing the American Association for People with Disabilities, said although the ruling directly affects Duval County, it could have far-reaching implications on all counties that aren't providing accessibility to disabled voters.
"When we get to that point, I'm not sure if we'll have to have one in the office for the fall voting," Hersey said. "In 2006, we'll have to have them in the precincts."
While Putnam will have to buy touch-screen voting machines sooner or later, other counties may soon have to let their voters cast paper ballots.
Putnam voters cast their ballots by paper and put them in an optical scanner.
A federal lawsuit brought by U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, challenging paperless electronic voting will go to trial before the November elections, a judge ruled March 22. U.S. District Judge James Cohn agreed with Wexler's request for fast-track consideration of his suit and scheduled a trial to begin between Aug. 16 and Aug. 27, The Palm Beach Post reported last week.
If Wexler prevails, he wants ballot printers or paper-based voting systems in place by November. Wexler said elections officials should begin making multimillion-dollar "contingency plans" to buy new voting equipment in case he wins, the Post reported.
Wexler claims the paperless voting machines used by 15 counties violate the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution because those votes can't be manually recounted while the votes in 52 other Florida counties can be reviewed by hand, the Post said.
"The issue is providing a paper trail for the system," Hersey said. "We do have a paper trail."
Hersey said touch-screen voting is interesting in that it plays audio for deaf people so they can hear the candidates' names and referendum issues and then vote, and then hear their vote so they can make sure the ballot reflects their choices.
"The only downside to (touch-screen voting) is it does not provide a paper trail," Hersey said.
Putnam's voters have used the current system since the presidential preference primary of 1996, Hersey said.
"You can recount the ballots if necessary," he said. "We have no hanging chads."
The Florida Legislature eliminated the use of punch-card machines after the 2000 election.
Fifty-two Florida counties, including Putnam, purchased optical scan voting systems. The optical technology allows voters to mark their choices on paper ballots, after which the ballots are read by machines that record the votes and compute the totals. Then the paper ballots are stored and are available for recounting.