NO Paper Trail for Touch Screen Voters in Florida - Case Dismissed

Republicans Prevail:
NO Paper Trail for Touch Screen Voters in Florida - Case Dismissed
The state will not be forced to create a paper record in case of tight races on touch-screen voting machines, a judge ruled Monday in upholding an emergency rule setting standards for electronic voting recounts. Touch-screen machines ``provide sufficient safeguards'' of constitutional rights by warning voters if they didn't vote in a race and by allowing a final ballot review, U.S. District Judge James Cohn wrote in a 25-page order. U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat, sued to create a paper record for manual recounts in close elections like the contentious 2000 presidential race or an order switching more than half of the state's voters in 15 counties from touch-screens to optical scan voting with paper ballots by 2006. Wexler said he planned an appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on the ruling favoring Secretary of State Glenda Hood and Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore. The judge found no constitutional violation in a touch-screen recount rule issued by the state Oct. 15 to replace one thrown out in August by a state judge. After hearing three days of testimony last week, Cohn concluded ``the preferential method of casting a ballot'' would include a paper printout allowing voters to make sure their selections are correct, but he said he was limited to determining ``whether the current procedures and standards comport with equal protection.'' Wexler called the ruling ``a partial victory'' but said he disagrees with the judge's conclusion that the voting machines meet the requirement in state law for manual recounts. [more ]

• Electronic Voting Raises New Issues (but not for Republicans) [more ]