Fla. GOP urges absentee ballot over machine

By Jane Musgrave

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, July 29, 2004

After spending months blocking Democratic efforts to equip touch-screen voting machines with printers to produce paper ballots, Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday found his position at odds with his own party.

In a mailing to Republicans in a Miami-Dade County state House district, the Republican Party of Florida urged voters to cast absentee ballots, warning that "electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount."

The argument is identical to the one U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, has made in federal and state courts in hopes a judge will order Secretary of State Glenda Hood, a Bush appointee, to equip touch-screen machines with printers before the Nov. 2 presidential election.
 "The Republicans should send that flyer to Gov. Jeb Bush and tell him to get his head out of the sand and create a paper trail for all voters so that we can be sure that every vote is counted," Wexler said when reached at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. "This is an appalling disgrace."

U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who has filed a bill that would require electronic machines to be equipped with voter-verified audit trails, voiced similar sentiments.

"This is inconsistent with everything the Republican Party has been saying," Graham said. "They are trying to have it both ways — denying voters going to the polls the right to have their votes counted and able to be verified while telling Republican voters they should vote absentee so they can have a paper trail. I don't understand this inconsistency."

Jill Bratina, a Bush spokeswoman, explained it this way: "The governor was not aware that mail piece had gone out. He doesn't support any message that attacks the credibility of machines that have proven they are reliable."

She described his reaction to news of the mailing as "disappointed."

Local GOP leaders were at a loss to explain the party's attack on touch-screen machines.

As recently as a week ago, county GOP chairman Sid Dinerstein described the Democrats' push for a paper trail as "a phony issue so when the Democrats lose, they can file suit."

On Thursday, Dinerstein said he didn't know enough about the issue to comment. But, he said, "If I were them, I wouldn't have written it that way."

Dinerstein pointed out that Republicans have long advocated mail-in voting, producing well-organized absentee drives. But never with a twist exactly like this.

Joseph Agostini, spokesman for the state Republican Party, said the flyer was not intended as an indictment of touch-screen machines.

"We regret any misunderstandings brought about by this mailing," he said, adding that the message won't be repeated in future mailings. "The Republican Party of Florida . . . is confident that Florida's election system is secure and accurate — from electronic machines to optical scanners."

But state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said the Republicans have fueled uncertainty about the upcoming election.

"I think the governor and the secretary of state ought to apologize," he said. "Either they should stick to the script that there is no problem or, if there is a problem, they should immediately solve it. I'm outraged that the Republican Party would try to confuse the public."

The touch-screen machines are being used in most of Florida's largest counties, where about half the state's votes are expected to be cast in this year's general election.