Congressman challenges touch-screen voting

A state appeals court is expected to rule soon on a challenge to voting machines used in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

BY PHIL LONG

plong@herald.com

 

WEST PALM BEACH - Touch-screen voting machines that don't provide a paper printout of the voter's choices violate state election laws, an attorney for South Florida congressman Robert Wexler argued Thursday before a three-judge appeals court panel.

Jeffrey Liggio, Wexler's attorney, said it is wrong for Wexler to be barred from challenging the use of the machines.

The main issue Thursday was whether Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat who also represents parts of Broward County, has standing the legal right to raise the issue in court.

Wexler says the state is violating its own laws by not having a paper trail that would enable officials to conduct a manual recount of ballots in a close or contested election.

PAPER NOT REQUIRED

In February, Palm Beach Circuit Judge Karen M. Miller dismissed Wexler's suit, saying that ``given that the [law] does not clearly require a voter-verified paper ballot, [Wexler] does not have a clear legal right to an injunction ordering the creation of such ballots.''

As a voter and an elected official, Liggio argued Thursday, ``if my candidate doesn't have standing then nobody does and that is frightening.''

Lawyers for Secretary of State Glenda Hood and Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore countered that the touch-screen system is reliable without paper printouts. They said legislators knew what they were doing when they approved the system and that a challenge should be before the Legislature or in an administrative hearing, not in court.

One of the appeals judges, Martha Warner, said she wondered who would have standing to challenge the voting system.

''We all have an interest in voting,'' she said.

The issue stems from the purchase of high-tech equipment to replace the infamous punch card ballots and their chads that put Florida in the center of worldwide attention during the 2000 presidential election. George W. Bush won the state by 537 votes, giving him enough electoral votes to win the White House.

PAPER VS. ELECTRONIC

Fifty-two Florida counties have voting systems in which voters fill in bubbles or boxes on paper ballots that are fed into electronic counters. In a questionable or very close election, the ballots can be fed through again and recounted.

But 15 counties, including Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and 12 others comprising more than half the state's 9.5 million voters, have touch-screen technology. The voter merely touches the candidate's name on the screen and when done with the entire ballot, all the ions are recorded electronically. There is no independent method of checking a paper document against the machine's total.