Attorney launches Web site encouraging absentee voting
Jill Krueger
Staff Writer

Prompted by criticism of the reliability of touch-screen electronic voting, one local constitutional law attorney has launched a Web site prompting Florida citizens to vote absentee in the upcoming presidential election.
 

"Allvotescount.org encourages everyone to vote absentee until they get (touch-screen electronic voting) right and it's reliable," explains Lawrence Walters, legal counsel for All Votes Count and a partner with Weston Garrou & DeWitt in in Altamonte Springs.

During the 2000 election, Democract Al Gore lost by a small margin to Republican George Bush in a recount because Floridians did not properly fill out ballots in certain polling districts.

After that, more counties began using touch-screen electronic voting machines to avoid Florida's problem.

However, these machines recently have had a high rate of malfunction compared to other voting methods, according to various media reports.

Earlier this week, Sen. Bill Nelson asked the U.S. Justice Department and Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood to do an independent audit of the electronic vote-counting devices. Yesterday, Hood also extended her investigation of the state voter database amid skepticism that a list of potential felons used in the last election was flawed and is a previously discovered problem.

Meanwhile, absentee votes leave a paper trail.

The All Votes Count Web site features a link for voters to request an absentee ballot from their electons supervisor, as well as a downloadable fact sheet on absentee voting.

Although most Central Florida counties will not be using touch-screen voting in the upcoming presidential election, the following Florida counties will be: Lake, Broward, Collier, Indian River, Lee, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Sumter, Charlotte, Hillsborough, Martin, Nassau, Pasco and Sarasota.

Orange County plans to use the AccuVote system, a state-certified optical scan system that is touted as voter friendly and a guard against fraud. Voters will receive a paper ballot in a secrecy folder. With a felt tip marker at the voting booth, the voter simply fills in the ovals next to their choices, just like tests children take in school.