(Florida) Bill would exempt electronic votes from manual recount

[tom bldr <tom_bldr@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_04b62879e47101b81001.html

Bill would exempt electronic votes from manual recount


By George Bennett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 1, 2004


The Florida law that requires a manual recount in
close elections would not apply to ballots cast on
paperless electronic voting machines under a bill
endorsed by a state Senate committee Wednesday.

Florida elections officials already interpret the
state's recount law that way. The new bill, approved
8-1 by the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, adds
specific language that says a manual recount cannot be
conducted on touch-screen machines, which are used by
Palm Beach County and 14 other Florida counties.

A House subcommittee will consider a similar bill
today.

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, who has filed
two lawsuits challenging paperless voting, called the
proposed change "blatantly unconstitutional." Wexler
claims it's a violation of the Constitution's
equal-protection clause if voters in 52 counties can
have their votes manually recounted while voters in 15
touch-screen counties cannot.

Florida law requires a manual recount when an election
is decided by 0.25 percent or less. In counties that
use paper optical-scan ballots, a canvassing board
conducts a manual recount by looking at "undervotes"
and "overvotes." Undervotes are ballots in which
tabulating machines did not detect a choice for any
candidate. Overvotes are ballots rejected because
voters chose more than one candidate.

The manual recount statute says that, if canvassers
examining an undervote or overvote find markings that
show "a clear indication on the ballot that the voter
has made a definite choice," the ballot is counted.

The law has raised questions in Palm Beach County in
two close elections this year because most of the
voting was done on touch screens, which produce no
tangible ballots.

A February opinion by the state's Division of
Elections says a manual recount of touch-screen votes
is unnecessary because there is no way a voter who
casts an electronic ballot can make a stray mark that
might reveal a "clear indication" of a choice.

Although the division contends existing law rules out
a manual recount of paperless ballots, Secretary of
State Glenda Hood endorses changing the language of
the statute. Said Hood spokeswoman Jenny Nash: "This
way it's in black and white and there's no question
about it."



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