Paperless voting meets fans, foes
A mock election uses machines county leaders will be asked to OK Thursday  
 By Kevin P. Connolly | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 6, 2005

DELAND Mike Thompson brought a big yellow protest sign to the Department of Elections on Tuesday to show his opposition to paperless voting.

The Edgewater activist one of a handful of peaceful protesters Tuesday didn't change his mind after trying out one of the touch-screen voting machines that Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall wants Volusia County Council members to approve Thursday.

"What we need is a ballot a real paper ballot," said Thompson, a member of the Volusia/Flagler Sierra Club. "You mark it. The machine reads it."

That's the system the county has now a system in which voters mark paper ballots that are read by optical-scanning machines.

But new laws are forcing elections supervisors across the state to purchase equipment that will allow people with disabilities to vote independently for elections after July 1.

Touch-screens are the only equipment certified in Florida to meet that requirement.

Activists are searching across the country for examples of touch-screen controversies, including a recent one in Miami-Dade County, as they try to stop the proliferation of the devices. Critics say the machines are vulnerable to hackers and glitches claims refuted by state and local officials.

McFall wants to supplement her existing optical-scan system by buying about 210 machines, so she'll have at least one for each precinct in the county, as required by the new laws.

She staged Tuesday's demonstration to help voters and officials get used to the new technology.

The 96 people who voted during the nine-hour mock election Tuesday offered a wide range of reactions to the new machines, from those who said they liked touch-screens to others who said they had not yet formed an opinion.

The demonstrations resume from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Department of Elections office, 136 N. Florida Ave., DeLand.

After checking out one machine Tuesday, Vivian Griffen of Lake Helen told McFall "it took a little while to get used to."

Paul Tomaino, a poll worker from Daytona Beach, tried out the machines for the first time Tuesday and said he was pleasantly surprised because news accounts about the devices have had a negative tone.

"I kind of like firsthand information," said Tomaino, a member of a new group of disabled activists expected to lobby for the machines Thursday.

The machines can be configured with headphones, an "audio ballot" and a keypad that allow blind and visually impaired people to cast ballots without assistance.

"It will allow them to vote and will allow them independence and privacy," Tomaino said.

County Council member Dwight Lewis said he had little problem voting until he used a machine with an audio ballot to simulate conditions a blind person might encounter. Listening to the directions and using the keypad to make ions requires patience, he said.

"I think you need to take your time," Lewis said.

County Council member Joie Alexander said she now feels more comfortable with the technology than she did a month ago, when about 40 or 50 paperless-voting foes, in a surprise show of opposition, persuaded council members to at least delay a vote on the touch-screens.

Foes of paperless voting are expected to encounter a strong show of support for the machines from the disabled community when County Council members take another look at McFall's request, in the meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday.

The meeting in Volusia comes a week after Constance Kaplan resigned as Miami-Dade's supervisor of elections amid a controversy over a "coding" error with touch-screens that resulted in as many as 477 votes being lost during the March 8 slot-machine referendum.

Election workers during that election and five previous ones incorrectly turned off a feature that would have allowed poll workers to cast ballots on behalf of voters who may have made ions but left polling locations without pressing the red "vote" button that completes the process, said Seth Kaplan, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade elections department.

There were not enough missing votes to change the outcome of any of the six elections, Kaplan said.

Miami-Dade uses machines made by Election Systems & Software.

McFall wants to buy machines made by Diebold Elections Systems. The Diebold machines do not give election officials the ability to make a similar change, said Tim Augustine, chief operations officer for McFall's office.