Lawsuit demands manual recount option with touch-screen voting machines

[Robbien]

By Linda Kleindienst
Tallahassee Bureau Chief
Posted July 8 2004

TALLAHASSEE· A coalition of civil rights and voting reform groups on Wednesday launched an appeal of a state rule that prohibits manual recounts on touch-screen voting machines. "Failure to allow a recount covers up malfunctioning machines and covers up when there is malicious tampering involved," said Alma Gonzalez, a Tallahassee attorney representing the Voter Protection Coalition Round Table.

. . .

Issued in February, as counties were preparing for the presidential preference primary, the state Division of Elections rule prohibits manual recounts on computerized voting machines in cases of close elections -- even though state law requires a manual recount of "over votes" and "under votes" when an election margin is less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the votes cast.

State officials argue that electronic balloting will not allow an over vote, in which a voter selects more than one candidate, and there is no way to determine a voter's intent in an under vote, in which no candidate is selected.

. . .

But recount supporters said an under vote could well be the result of a hardware or software failure that, if fixed, could reveal an actual vote. The lawsuit was filed in Florida's Division of Administrative Hearings on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Common Cause Florida, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, Florida Voters League and the Florida state chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

" certainly makes you start thinking seriously about conspiracy theories," said Ben Wilcox, director of Common Cause Florida, a government watchdog group. "It feeds the cynicism out there that the election will be stolen again. It sends the wrong message."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-frecount08jul08,0,7846298.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

[redqueen]

1. This is a great idea

People in every state should be doing this.

[olddem43]

2. They've had 4 years to fix this mess -

and it's obvious that they really don't want a fair and verifiable election.