Florida still can't count all the votes
No paper trail with touch screens
By Mark K. Matthews
The Orlando Sentinel
November 24, 2006
boston.com
SARASOTA, Fla. -- Touch-screen voting machines were supposed to be the answer, a response to the chaos of the 2000 presidential election.
Instead, the discovery of about 18,000 electronic votes recorded as blank in this month's tight race for Congress has created a new black eye for Florida elections.
A paper trail might have provided clues to what happened Nov. 7, but Florida officials have balked at requiring such backup. The state Legislature repeatedly has killed measures to require a verifiable paper trail, and neither Governor Jeb Bush nor the secretary of state's office has pushed the idea.
So six years after late-night comedians joked about "bringing democracy to Florida," the state still has not found a way to hold elections without controversy.
Earlier this week, state officials certified Republican Vern Buchanan the winner over Democrat Christine Jennings by 369 votes, or less than 0.02 percent, in the 13th congressional district.
Jennings has contested the election, arguing that touch-screen voting machines had malfunctioned and asking a judge to order a new election. State officials said Wednesday they would test voting machines, including five used in Sarasota County on Election Day, for accuracy.
The high number of blanks, or "undervotes," cast in the race has been questioned. Computer problems are suspected, but finding an answer has been difficult.
Comparatively, only about 1 percent of Sarasota County voters did not make a selection in the senator and governor's race.
Under state law, there must be two recounts in elections this close. The first, a machine count, retallies the totals. The second, called a manual recount, examines "undervotes," or blanks, as well as "overvotes," which occur when a voter selects two or more candidates in a race.
Sarasota officials did the manual recount in District 13, which is intended to determine voter intent. On a paper ballot, it might mean counting a vote made by someone who circled a candidate's name -- rather than shading in the choice as in a multiple-choice test.
But for the 15 Florida counties that use touch-screen machines, trying to ascertain voter intent is impossible. All that can be done is to print a scorecard of the voter's choices, acknowledge the voter missed the race, and move on.
Florida has done little to ensure that voting results can be safeguarded against computer errors.
After the 2000 election, the state appeared to be on the leading edge of election reform. In 2001, state officials ordered an end to punch-card ballots and set aside money to help counties update their equipment. The legislation was passed a year before federal officials undertook election reform.
Most counties decided to use optical-scan systems, which require voters to mark choices with a pen or pencil. Fifteen others chose touch-screen machines. Pushed by a deadline to implement the new equipment, none of these counties could buy a model that produced a paper trail.
That's because the secretary of state's office, which oversees elections, never approved such a model. The office has blamed the Legislature for not passing guidelines on paper-trail machines.
Without these regulations, a state spokeswoman said, companies won't press for approval of electronic machines with a paper trail.
Some Democrats in the Legislature said efforts to add a paper trail were stymied, however. Ken Gottlieb, who served in his last session this year, said he repeatedly tried to require paper trails. "No matter what we did, we lost," he said.
Local supervisors of elections have called for a change, too. They want the state to approve machines that leave a paper trail, saying that will ease voters' minds.
"We're feeling the brunt of the punishment," said Michael Ertel, the supervisor of elections in Seminole County. "What harm is there in an additional verifiable ballot?"
The governor has been wary of touch-screen machines, saying he prefers optical-scan voting. Aides said he is waiting for the right technology to come along.
Ken Fields, a spokesman for Election Systems & Software, said this year the company submitted a package that included a paper-trail upgrade for touch-screen machines. But with no requirement, there was "no mandate" to get the modification certified.
So ES&S, the company that made the machines used by Sarasota County, dropped the idea.
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