Posted on Thu, Jul. 08, 2004
Suit challenges recount ban
Voter advocacy groups sued to overturn a state rule barring counties with touch-screen voting machines from doing manual recounts.
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS
meklas@herald.com
TALLAHASSEE - A 3-month-old state rule prohibiting counties with touch-screen voting machines from doing manual recounts should be thrown out before the Aug. 31 primary, voter advocacy groups said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday against state election officials.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida warned that the rule adopted April 9 by the state Division of Elections could inadvertently keep election officials from discovering defects in malfunctioning machines, or errors due to tampering, because it bars county officials from using the backup audit systems in the machines to verify the votes cast in a close election.
''You cannot ride on the premise that all machines are infallible and there will never be a mistake and never be a programming error,'' said Alma Gonzalez, the ACLU attorney who filed the suit.
The groups claim that election officials exceeded their authority when they adopted the rule allowing the 52 counties with optical scanning machines to conduct a recount of the overvotes and undervotes in a race, but prohibiting the 15 counties with touch-screen machines from doing the same.
The lawsuit alleges that the rule sets up a system that allows for unequal treatment of voters.
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