Federal court revives congressman's petition seeking paper trail for voting machines

By Jeremy Milarsky
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted September 28 2004

With the presidential election a little more than a month away, a federal appeals court on Monday morning revived a Democratic congressman's quest to give Florida voters paper receipts for the state's touch-screen voting machines, in case a recount is needed.

Judges with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta struck down a May decision by U.S. District Judge James Cohn. Cohn ruled that since U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler had already sued elections officials in state court, his case had no place in the federal court system.

But with Monday's ruling, a federal judge will now have to decide whether the relatively new ATM-style voting machines are constitutional. Such a ruling would require state technicians to work at breakneck speed to prepare for the upcoming presidential election.

Voting machine technicians would need to install a paper receipt system for 15 counties before Oct. 18, the first day voters can cast absentee ballots for the Nov. 2 election. Broward and Palm Beach counties are among those that use the new voting machines.

Therefore, state officials say whatever happens in court, it's unlikely voters going to the polls on Nov. 2 will see paper printers in the voting booth.

"We got less than two weeks right now before early voting starts," said Bill Cowles, president of the Florida Association of Supervisors of Elections and Orange County's elections supervisor. "You can't get a new system in, test it and certify it by that time."

Wexler, who has argued that equipping the state's electronic voting machines with paper receipts would make them more accountable to voters, called Monday's ruling a defeat for Gov. Jeb Bush. Secretary of State Glenda Hood, a Bush appointee and the state's top election official, has called touch-screens reliable and voter-friendly.

"The governor wants to deny us our day in court," Wexler, of Boca Raton, said Monday. "But the governor lost big time today. Big time."

Hood's spokeswoman called Monday's ruling "procedural." She pointed out that Wexler has lost more battles than he has won in the courtroom debate over electronic voting machines.

"We have full confidence in the elections process that we have in place in the state of Florida," Hood spokeswoman Alia Faraj said.

Wexler filed his first suit challenging the new voting systems Jan. 16 in state court. He argued that state law, which provides for a hand-recount of ballots after a close election, is impossible to apply to the new voting machines, since no one can count ballots by hand when they exist only in cyberspace.

A state court judge, then a state appeals panel rejected that case earlier this year, leaving the federal court Wexler's best option.

Shortly after Wexler filed his case, Hood published a "rule change" immunizing counties using touch-screen machines from the state law requiring hand recounts after close elections. But a lawsuit filed by some civil rights groups succeeded in stalling the rule change.

Hood spokeswoman Jenny Nash said state officials are working with the civil rights groups to come up with a compromise before Nov. 2.

Staff Writer Shahien Nasiripour contributed to this report.