Judge sets conference on paperless voting challenge
A lawsuit argues the machines can't do manual recounts.

By George Bennett

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, October 08, 2004

A federal judge in Fort Lauderdale has ordered a conference today on U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler's legal challenge to paperless voting — raising the possibility of a trial and ruling on the hot-button issue before the Nov. 2 election.

Judge James Cohn issued the order late Thursday after an appeals court in Atlanta reaffirmed its Sept. 27 ruling that the Delray Beach Democrat's lawsuit should go to trial. Cohn's order also calls for parties in the case to agree to an expedited trial schedule for the case.

Wexler's suit claims the electronic touch-screen voting machines used by a majority of Florida voters are unconstitutional because they don't allow manual recounts in close elections. Wexler wants touch screens to be outfitted with printers that would create a backup ballot paper trail.
 
 
"I am very hopeful that this judge wants to decide this case before the election," Wexler said Thursday. But if that happens and Wexler prevails, the congressman acknowledged it is too late to install printers before the election.

Without a paper trail, Wexler and attorney Jeffrey Liggio of West Palm Beach said they want the court to order tight monitoring of electronic voting machines and central elections office computers before the election and at thousands of polling places on Election Day.

One suggestion mentioned by Wexler is that "poll watchers of sorts" keep track of how many voters sign it at precincts and compare that number every few hours with the number of votes tallied on touch screens.

"Has he been in a precinct on a presidential election day?" said Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore. She said Wexler's idea would require new training of poll workers and raise legal questions about who would have access to machines.

"It's like they want this election to fail. They're setting us up for failure," said LePore, who was defeated for reelection Aug. 31 by the Wexler-masterminded campaign of Arthur Anderson.

LePore is a defendant in Wexler's suit along with Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood and Indian River County Elections Supervisor Kay Clem.

"It's unfortunate that Congressman Wexler continues to erode voter confidence by criticizing the touch-screen systems that have worked successfully since 2002 and most recently in the August primary," Hood spokeswoman Alia Faraj said.

While Wexler's suit moves forward, Hood's office is developing an emergency rule laying out procedures for a manual recount from touch-screen machines, Faraj said. She wouldn't speculate on what that rule might entail.