Duval, of optical scan system, told to add touchscreens for blind

Associated Press  28 September 2004

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A federal judge Tuesday ordered Duval County to install touchscreen voting machines for blind and manually disabled voters who cannot use the county's optical scan machines without help. He said they had to be installed in time for the November election.

If an appellate court does not block U.S. District Judge Henry Adams' order, the county has five weeks to buy, install and train poll workers on the new voting machines.

There would be 57 of them, installed in one-fifth of the county's precincts.

At a hearing last week, an elections office attorney argued there is not enough time before the Nov. 2 election. Jacksonville attorneys began Tuesday crafting a stay request to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

"If we ordered them right now, they'd take a month to get here," said Jacksonville Assistant General Counsel Scott Makar. "But of course, we're going to comply with the judge's order."

Some state money is available to buy the machines, officials said last week, but cost estimates range from $275,000 to millions.

The city must comply even while it appeals, said Ari Rothman, attorney for the disabled voters.

"We're going to ride them pretty hard," he said. "We'll do what we have to to make sure they comply."

The ruling stems from a 2001 suit in which three disabled voters sued Elections Supervisor John Stafford, alleging the county's optical scan voting machines didn't allow them to vote independently.

This spring, another federal judge ruled that the county had to make voting machines accessible to blind or handicapped voters in one-fifth of the county's precincts. The order was stayed while elections officials filed an appeal.

Adams said lawyers for the disabled voters provided enough evidence at a hearing last week to persuade him to lift the stay.