Volusia's ongoing touch-screen debate focuses on deadline
A federal judge says he will decide the county's timetable for buying machines `as soon as I can.'

By Kevin P. Connolly | Orlando Sentinel
Posted July 16, 2005
An attorney for the National Federation of the Blind on Friday urged a federal judge to order Volusia County to immediately purchase controversial touch-screen voting machines.

But a special counsel for Volusia County argued against the request, telling U.S. District Judge John Antoon II that under federal law, the county has until Jan. 1 to purchase devices that will allow the visually disabled to vote independently.

Orlando-based attorney David V. Kornreich argued that the additional time may allow the new voting devices which allow the visually disabled to vote unassisted and also use the paper ballots County Council members want to get approved for use in Florida.

The only touch-screens currently certified for use in Florida don't create paper ballots.

About 50 people, many with visual disabilities or other physical limitations, attended the nearly hourlong hearing at the George C. Young Federal Courthouse in Orlando part of a lawsuit sparked by the county's refusal last month to buy paperless touch-screens.

After listening to arguments from both sides, Antoon said he understood the urgent nature of the issue and would issue a decision on the NFB's request for a preliminary injunction to force the county to purchase paperless touch-screens "as soon as I can."

Blind residents who attended the hearing and who want touch-screens, which allow independent voting with headphones and audio ballots, said they are eager for Antoon's ruling.

"Time is of the essence and, for us, the time is now," said plaintiff Kathy Davis of Ormond Beach, president of the National Federation of the Blind in Florida.

After the hearing, Daniel F. Goldstein, attorney for the NFB, compared the struggle for touch-screens to the 1960s-era civil-rights conflicts in the South.

"That's what brought us down here," said Goldstein, a partner with the Baltimore-based firm of Brown, Goldstein & Levy.

Volusia is thought to be the only county in Florida to reject a contract for touch-screens.

Goldstein told the judge that a state law requires disability-accessible voting devices in Florida for elections after July 1.

Early voting for Oct. 11 city races in Volusia starts Sept. 26.

To have the devices ready for the next election, Goldstein told Antoon that touch-screens must be in Volusia by July 29.

But Kornreich, with the firm of Akerman Senterfitt, told the judge the state law was "extremely vague," and the compliance date for accessible voting machines is actually Jan. 1 under the federal Help America Vote Act.

Having more time may allow an alternative voting device possibly a ballot-marking device with a touch-screen interface called the AutoMark to get approved for Florida, county officials have said.

At one point, Antoon noted that two separate documents letters from Attorney General Charlie Crist and state elections official Paul Craft disputed Kornreich's contention that the July 1 date is "ambiguous."

"They both tell me there is to be compliance for the first election" after July 1, Antoon said.

The only County Council member to attend the hearing was Art Giles, who voted with three other members against a largely grant-funded contract to spend $776,935 for 210 touch-screens and related equipment from Diebold Elections Systems.

The rejected contract also included the ability to spend $96,855 for add-on printers after they are certified for use in Florida.

Also at the meeting was Elections Supervisor Ann McFall, who supports touch-screens, which she proposed as a supplemental device for Volusia's existing paper-based optical-scan voting system.

McFall, whose position clashes with the majority of council members, has her own legal counsel. But a federal magistrate Thursday denied her request for an emergency hearing to ask for county funding to pay her outside attorney, Diego "Woody" Rodriguez of Orlando.

That means McFall is paying Rodriguez out of her own pocket. She said Friday she sent Rodriguez $2,000 and her legal bill is about $10,000.