County rejects touch screens
A legal challenge is expected by advocates for the disabled, who favor the touch voting machines.

By Kevin P. Connolly | Orlando Sentinel   June 30, 2005

DELAND A slim majority of County Council members on Wednesday voted against buying controversial touch-screen voting machines, practically assuring a legal challenge from advocates for the disabled.

Council members, who voted 4-3 against a contract with Diebold Elections Systems for 210 touch screens, said they remained concerned about the devices' lack of paper ballots in a county with a history of close elections and recounts.

But advocates for the disabled are likely to sue Volusia County to enforce new laws requiring at least one disability-accessible voting machine at each polling location for elections after July 1.

Volusia's next scheduled elections are city races on Oct. 11.

Wednesday's vote, which came after a six-hour hearing in front of about 100 people on both sides of the issue, mirrored a vote council members took earlier this month. Both votes went against the advice of County Attorney Dan Eckert, who strongly urged council members to approve the contract because he said it was their only option.

The only devices currently certified in Florida to meet the accessibility requirements are touch screens.

"The council just voted to break the law," said Jim Dickson, vice president of government affairs for the American Association for People with Disabilities. "I've never seen that in my entire life."

The board of directors of his nonprofit organization, based in Washington, D.C., already has authorized legal action against the county to force it into compliance, but Dickson said Wednesday he wasn't ready to reveal when a lawsuit may be filed.

Members of the Greater Daytona Beach Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Florida also voted last weekend to join a lawsuit against the county for failing to comply with the new laws.

"I don't like legal actions, but it looks like they forced our hand," said Doug Hall of Daytona Beach, who is blind and an advocate for the visually impaired.

The four County Council members who voted against the contract reiterated their concerns about supplementing Volusia's existing paper-based voting system with touch screens, which don't produce paper ballots, and, as a result, may erode residents' faith in Volusia's election system.

"I believe that voter confidence is so important," said County Council member Carl Persis, who joined Dwight Lewis, Art Giles and County Chairman Frank Bruno in defeating a contract supported by Elections Supervisor Ann McFall.

She told council members she could be charged with a third-degree felony for holding elections without accessible voting machines.

"I'm between a rock and a hard place," she said. After the vote, McFall said her outside legal advisers would probably file court papers on her behalf as early as Tuesday, asking a judge to declare the county in violation of the law.

"I think a court of law will tell them they have to abide by the law," said McFall, who said she is using the legal services of Woody Rodriguez, an Orlando-based attorney in private practice who also has represented Orange County Elections Supervisor Bill Cowles.

Rodriguez wrote in a letter to council members last week that rejecting the contract "will result in disastrous consequences to the County and its electors." Fifteen of Florida's 67 counties, including Lake County, already use paperless, touch-screen voting machines as their primary voting system.

The other counties, including Volusia, use optical scanners that read paper ballots marked by voters. But most optical-scan counties, including Orange and Seminole, already have purchased or are negotiating agreements for touch screens to supplement their existing system to comply with accessibility rules.

Volusia, perhaps because of its history of high-profile voting problems and penchant for close elections, is thought to be the only county in Florida that has rejected a contract for paperless touch screens.

Pro-paper activists noted the value of paper ballots during the 2000 presidential election, when a glitch deducted 16,022 votes for Al Gore in a precinct where only 219 people voted a problem ironed out after counting paper ballots.

Paper also is prized in Leon County, where Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho said he is waiting for a new piece of equipment a ballot-marking device with touch-screen interface called AutoMark to get approved for accessible voting in Florida.

Leon County doesn't have elections scheduled until September 2006.

A representative for AutoMark told County Council members Wednesday that his product has federal approval and the company is working to get Florida's certification. However, no one knows how long the certification process will take.

Meanwhile, a representative for Diebold told council members it will likely seek Florida certification early next year for a printer add-on for touch screens designed to provide a so-called "voter verified paper trail."

Bruno, the county chairman, blamed state officials for not providing more options and for effectively pitting the county against two groups he supports the disabled and paper-ballot backers.

"I don't like being in violation of state statutes I really don't," he said.