State elections supervisors squabbling

BRENT KALLESTAD

Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Leon County elections supervisor Ion Sancho apparently won't win any popularity contests among his 66 colleagues across the state, or in the secretary of state's office for that matter.

The head of that group's professional association, Orange County Supervisor Bill Cowles, sent a harshly worded one-page letter Monday to Sancho, who has criticized touchscreen voting technology that many of the state's largest counties plan to use this year. Cowles said most supervisors disagree.

"Your comments do not reflect their feelings or their faith in the elections process," Cowles wrote, criticizing Sancho for what he called "unwarranted attacks" on the touchscreen technology.

"They feel that Ion Sancho is not a team player, he's not representing them," Secretary of State Glenda Hood said Tuesday. "By doing what he's doing, he's eroding voter confidence."

She has defended the touchscreen machines as the best available technology - and one that makes voting much easier for the disabled and notes that voters who aren't comfortable with that technology can vote early by absentee ballot.

Sancho, however, oversees a county that's had one of the lowest rates of voter error in recent years in a state known for voting difficulties. In Leon County, voters fill in a blank on paper ballots that are read by machine.

And he thinks everyone in Florida should use these systems, saying touchscreen machines used in 15 Florida counties, including the most populous, aren't as accurate.

A number of elections supervisors and state officials tout touchscreens as reliable and note that they're far more accurate than older voting systems - such as Florida's retired punch cards.

But lawmakers in several states are expressing concerns about paperless voting. As many as 50 million Americans will use such electronic voting machines in November.