2 counties risk lawsuits for spurning touch-screen voting machines

By George Bennett   Palm Beach Post     June 27, 2005

At least two Florida counties are balking at paperless touch-screen voting machines ? and risking lawsuits ? as state and federal deadlines loom for buying equipment that allows disabled voters to cast ballots without assistance.

The Volusia County Council rejected a contract this month to buy touch screens to supplement the county's optical-scan ballots. And Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho says he'd rather wait for a not-yet-approved voting device than buy any paperless machines.
Voters in Volusia, Leon and 50 other Florida counties use paper ballots that optical scanners read at each precinct. State and federal laws say counties with optical-scan ballots can keep those systems, but they also must add other equipment to accommodate voters who can't mark paper ballots on their own.

The state law applies to any elections that take place after Friday. The federal law takes effect Jan. 1.

The state's deadline has forced St. Lucie County to delay a planned September referendum on whether to renew a half-percent sales tax for school construction. The vote was put off until at least Oct. 18 because the county has not received a shipment of 95 Diebold touch screens.

Touch screens have an audio component that allows blind voters to cast ballots without the help of friends or poll workers. They are also easier to use for voters who have trouble gripping a pencil.

Palm Beach and Martin counties use touch screens for all their precinct voting and therefore are already in compliance.

But counties that use optical-scan ballots and don't add accessible voting machines could find themselves in court.

"It appears the disability groups are going to sue them," said Citrus County Elections Supervisor Susan Gill, the head of the statewide association of elections chiefs. Citrus County, which uses optical-scan ballots, expects to add 50 new touch screens in time for a December water district election.

To assure that people with disabilities have the same privacy as other voters, a state statute says every polling place must include at least one piece of voting equipment that allows every user "to independently operate the voter interface through the final step of casting a ballot without assistance."

The federal Help America Vote Act includes a similar provision.

Touch screens are the only types of equipment approved by the Florida Division of Elections that meet the new accessibility requirements.

But touch-screen critics say the requirements also can be met with a new product that the state hasn't certified.

With that product, called Automark and marketed by Elections Systems & Software, a voter uses an accessible touch screen to make ions that are transferred onto an optical-scan ballot that is identical to ballots other voters use.

The company's application to have the Automark certified in Florida was deemed incomplete in March and the Division of Elections is awaiting a revised submission, a spokeswoman said. Neither the division nor a company spokeswoman would estimate how long it might take to get the product approved.

Sancho, the Leon County elections chief, is waiting for the Automark because it produces a paper trail. Sancho has been an outspoken critic of paperless voting.

Sancho also has been feuding with Diebold, which makes the optical-scan ballots that Leon County uses. He accuses the company of trying to "browbeat" its optical-scan customers to buy touch screens.

Diebold and the Division of Elections criticized Sancho this month after he invited the group Black Box Voting to try to breach the security of Leon County's tabulation system. The exercise suggested that a corrupt employee would be able to manipulate results, Sancho and the group said. The exercise also showed the value of a ballot paper trail, Sancho said.

"As long as I have tangible, paper ballots, I'm not going to lose anything, even if I have a corrupt employee, or a bribed employee or a human error," Sancho said.

Leon County can wait to comply with the accessibility requirement because it does not have any elections scheduled the rest of this year.

But in Volusia County, as many as 16 cities and towns have elections in October. The county will have to postpone them or risk lawsuits if it doesn't buy touch screens, Elections Supervisor Ann McFall said.

Despite McFall's warnings, the county council voted 4-3 on June 6 against buying touch screens. Council Chairman Frank Bruno said the vote reflects distrust of paperless voting.

"A lot of my constituents feel they don't want their vote going into a black hole somewhere," Bruno said.

The Volusia council could reconsider its decision at a special meeting Wednesday in DeLand. Among those expected to attend is Jim Dickson of the Washington-based American Association of People with Disabilities. Dickson's group filed a federal suit against Duval County that resulted last year in a judge's ordering one touch screen in each precinct there.

Bruno says he realizes Volusia County could be the target of a similar suit, but that doesn't change his opposition to touch screens.

"I'm just hoping and praying and working with Automark that hopefully before too long it can be certified," Bruno said. "I don't like being civilly disobedient... but Volusia County, I believe, is really showing leadership on this."