Hearing on lawsuit over touch-screen voting set for Friday

CORALIE CARLSON

Associated Press  07 October 2004

MIAMI - A lawsuit demanding that touch-screen voting machines be made to produce paper records moved ahead Thursday after a federal appeals court refused to reconsider its decision to revive the case.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a motion by Secretary of State Glenda Hood to have all 12 judges hear the case. Last week, a three-judge panel ordered a federal judge hold a trial.

The case could affect 15 Florida counties whose electronic voting terminals do not issue paper records.

U.S. District Judge James Cohn of Fort Lauderdale has scheduled a status hearing for Friday. Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, who filed the lawsuit, said he would ask for an expedited trial.

"This is a clear indication that Floridians will not be denied their voting rights," Wexler said. "We have a plan for counting all of the votes cast, and conducting a manual recount, in the event we have another close election."

It was not immediately clear if the case could be decided before the Nov. 2 presidential election.

Hood's office will participate in Friday's hearing, a spokeswoman said, and has invited Wexler and others to help draft an emergency recount rule.

"It's a shame that U.S. Rep. Wexler continues to attack Secretary of State Glenda Hood and continues to work on eroding voter confidence," added the spokeswoman, Alia Faraj.

Wexler said electronic votes can't be recounted as accurately as those cast on paper, such as the optical scan system used in the rest of Florida's 67 counties. He sued state election officials, arguing that the Constitution would be violated by a voting system that varies from county to county.

But elections officials said they believe the current system will work.

"We have confidence in the voting system that we have in the state of Florida and look forward to a successful general election," Faraj said.

Florida adopted the touch-screen machinery after the 2000 debacle involving punch-card ballots and hanging chads. A five-week court battle over disputed ballots from several counties kept the outcome of the presidential election up in the air until the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the recounts, giving President Bush the state by a 537-vote margin.

More than 100,000 touch-screen machines are in use nationwide. Only a small percentage have printers and produce a paper record of each ballot.