Wexler, losing in court, dismisses tests of “black box” voting machines
“I’d be foolish to be optimistic” about the lawsuit, says congressman
 
Published Saturday, August 21, 2004
by Sean Salai in the Boca Raton News

Last week’s public testing of Florida’s touch-screen voting machines was meaningless and created a false sense of security, says U.S. Congressman Robert Wexler, whose legal challenges to the devices were on their last legs in federal court yesterday.
“You can test all you want in August,” Wexler told the Boca Raton News in an interview. “It only creates a false sense of security. It doesn’t mean the boxes will work on Nov. 2.”
Wexler’s lawyers yesterday argued before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta that the “black box” voting machines in 15 of Florida’s 67 counties lack the “paper trail” necessary to comply with state laws requiring the option of manual recounts.
The Democrat from Boca Raton is appealing a state decision last week in the 4th District Court of Appeals to dismiss his suit.
“The judge basically mixed apples and oranges,” said Wexler attorney Robert Peck, who contends the federal and state cases argued different issues.
Although Wexler himself said he does not expect to win the lawsuit, he claimed victory in the long run.
“I’d be foolish if I were optimistic after last week’s ruling,” Wexler said. “But I am confident the process I started will result in a paper trail being implemented. I want Florida to be able to conduct a manual recount.”
Meanwhile, in obedience to Florida law, state and local elections officials last Wednesday began publicly testing the touch-screen machines in seven Florida counties.
Palm Beach County board of elections supervisor Theresa LaPore vouched for the machines after one local test, and candidates for state and federal offices from both sides of the aisle have signaled their approval.
“I question Wexler’s technical knowledge,” said Boca software engineer Neil Haynie, a current Beach and Park District candidate. “I’ve worked with hundreds of computer systems, and these machines are put together very reliably, are thoroughly debugged and are more than adequate.”
But Wexler, whose lawsuit names LePore and Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, has joined the American Civil Liberties Union in mounting a series of futile legal challenges to the machines – and plans to continue doing so.
“We’ve privatized our election process,” Wexler said. “We don’t have access to the codes. We don’t have access to the workings of the machines – total control belongs to the manufacturer.
“Unfortunately, I think many Floridians would happily make deposits at a bank that promised, ‘no receipt, no records – just trust us. Oh, and you can’t audit us because only the bank knows the technology’”
According to the legal challenges, the “black box” machines in the 2002 elections and recent primaries were eight times more likely than optical devices to make mistakes.
“They haven’t changed the machines or corrected the faults that created this enormous error rate,” Wexler said. “This is not a Democratic or Republican issue. Katherine Harris, believe it or not, supports a paper trail. Unfortunately, Jeb Bush has ignored us.”