Top Florida election official faces more legal battles over paper ballots

BY JEREMY MILARSKY

South Florida Sun-Sentinel   08 October 2004

 

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - (KRT) - Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood this week lost a skirmish in the court battle over whether the state's touch-screen should be equipped with paper receipts and simultaneously was hit with another lawsuit accusing her of illegally stopping would-be voters from casting ballots in the Nov. 2 election.

Lawyers for Hood, the state's top election official, had hoped for another hearing before the 11th District Court of Appeals in Atlanta on the touch-screen issue. But on Thursday, the full 12-judge panel declined to hold another hearing on whether to dismiss the case, which was brought by U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton.

Fifteen Florida counties, including Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach, use touch-screens without paper receipts. The remaining 52 counties use optical-scan machines, with which voters mark their choice on a paper ballot.

Wexler's attorneys have argued that since touch-screen machines do not have paper receipts for each vote, and optical-scan voting machines do, the state is in violation of the U.S. Constitution's equal-protection clause.

Meanwhile, the Florida Democratic Party on Friday announced they have sued Hood in a federal court in Tallahassee, alleging she earlier this week wrongly advised local election officials to reject voter-registration applications in which would-be voter failed to check a box certifying their U.S. citizenship.

"Her actions in this matter smack of partisanship," said U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, chairman of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's Florida campaign.

But a spokeswoman for Hood said the secretary acted properly.

"We acted in accordance with state and federal law," said spokeswoman Alia Faraj.

Exactly how many voter-registration applications were rejected over the citizenship-box issue is unclear. While county supervisors count how many applications they reject, they do not classify why the forms were rejected.

In Wexler's case, a three-member panel of the federal appeals court reversed an earlier decision to dismiss Wexler's case in late September. Since the full court upheld that decision, court officials on Friday scheduled a trial before U.S. District Judge James Cohn in Fort Lauderdale.

A hearing has been planned for Oct. 18.

A spokeswoman for Hood expressed optimism about the upcoming trial.

"We believe that, based on the merits of the case, we will ultimately prevail," said Jenny Nash, another spokeswoman for Hood. The secretary's office is working on a compromise with Wexler to craft a way for manual recounts to happen in counties that use touch screens, officials said.

But Wexler's chief of staff said the appellate ruling was a big defeat for Hood.

"For (Hood), it's been all about delay, delay, delay to put this case off until after the election," said Eric Johnson, Wexler's chief of staff. "Now, we'll have a hearing."

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