Broward again makes pitch for paper trail

Broward County commissioners re-emphasized their interest in a paper trail for electronic voting machines.

BY ERIKA BOLSTAD Miami Herald  22 September 2004

Broward County commissioners know they won't be able to get a paper trail for the county's electronic voting machines by Nov. 2, but they're still making their interest clear to state officials.

Commissioners voted Tuesday to let the state Division of Elections know their preference: a paper record that enables a manual recount of machine results in close elections.

State election officials solicited advice on recounts earlier this month, after a judge threw out a state rule that prohibits manual recounts in counties using electronic voting equipment.

The Division of Elections invited comment from voting-machine vendors, election advocacy groups, candidates and election supervisors across Florida.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood has until Sunday to decide whether to appeal the judge's decision on the recounts. That decision hasn't been made yet, said Hood spokeswoman Jenny Nash. .

Commissioners get plenty of questions about the issue from their constituents, said Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin.

But until the state certifies printers for electronic machines, it's impossible to buy such equipment.

Broward commissioners said Tuesday they just wanted to reiterate their preference for paper trails, which they started supporting even before a controversial special legislative election in January.

In that now-notorious race, State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff won by 12 votes, a margin that prompted a manual recount.

During the recount, county election officials determined that there were 134 undervotes in which voters skipped the race and did not chose a candidate.

Broward County Mayor Ilene Lieberman, who oversaw the recount as a member of the county's canvassing board, said at the time that she thought the number was suspiciously high.

The legislative race was the only one on the ballot and many election observers felt it would be unusual for people to choose not to vote after making the effort to show up at the polls for a special election.

''I'm a big fan of having a paper trail,'' Lieberman said. ``It's very frustrating to have these undervotes.''