To Touch, Or Not to Touch?

To touch, or not to touch, that is the question. The Republican Party has two answers. Last week, the Republican Party of Florida sent out a glossy mailer to voters in Miami: "The liberal Democrats have already begun their attacks and the new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of recount. Make sure your vote counts. Order your absentee ballot today."

Votes cast on election day are made on touch screen machines in Dade and 14 other counties. Those sent in absentee use optical scanners to tally marks by candidates names.

The important difference: Absentee ballots provide a paper trail, while the touch screen voting machines do not.

So those touch-voting machines with no paper trails are suspect?

Gov. Jeb Bush doesn't think so. He and his officials in the Elections Division have been assuring voters that the machines are so reliable that they don't require a paper trail.

So the Republican Party of Florida thinks the governor is wrong, then?

Well, no, said Joseph Agostini, spokesman for the Florida Republican Party. In fact, he told a reporter, the mailer wasn't even a GOP document. But after been shown a copy of it, he decided that it was.

"It's unbelievable," said state Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, of the GOP's efforts to criticize touch screen voting because the machines cannot "verify your vote."

She added: "They're [the Republicans] the ones who won't certify a machine to attach a paper trail."

By Thursday, the Florida GOP's Agostini was again talking to reporters, this time apologizing for the mailer: "Have no doubt that we are confident of Florida's elections system, and that means the entire electoral system is accurate and secure. We regret any misunderstanding over this issue."

The misunderstandings still exist, however.

Are touch screen machines reliable as the governor and Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood contend? Or are they not to be trusted because they "do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount" as the Florida Republican Party warned?

If the machines aren't a problem as Bush and Hood believe -that raises another question pointed out by Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton: "If the voting equipment isn't a problem, then don't create political literature and issue political statements, which are designed to scare people or intimidate them. Why is the Republican Party of Florida creating false fears if the touch screen systems are reliable?"

Evidently, many voters have decided not to take chances with their votes. Theresa LePore, elections supervisor for Palm Beach County, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel last week that more than 15,000 voters there have requested absentee ballots twice the number as was provided before the 2002 gubernatorial elections. She said she couldn't say why the increase has occurred.

Absentee ballots are easier to obtain. A requirement voters could only obtain an absentee ballot if they were not able to go to the polls on election day was ped three years ago. This year, the governor signed a bill that eliminates a witness' signature on an absentee ballot.

For Polk County voters, it doesn't matter: The county uses paper ballots that are scanned when ed into an electronic ballot box. The box's total can be verified by counting the ballots within.

But in four weeks from tomorrow, a large percentage of voters in Florida will go to polls that use touch screen voting machines.

Got confidence?

After last week's tapdancing around touch screens, it will be interesting to see how many seek to vote absentee.