"Ron" <128567@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:ng20j091ue072s87u52tev474bnurkqq23@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Florida Judge Rules on Manual Vote Recounts
> By DAVID ROYSE, Associated Press Writer
> Friday, August 27, 2004
>
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=548&u=/ap/20040828/ap_on_el_ge/flo
rida_voting&printer=1
> TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A state rule barring the 15 Florida counties with
touchscreen voting
> from conducting manual recounts is at odds with state law, which
requires
hand recounts in
> some close elections, a judge ruled Friday.
> A coalition including government watchdogs and other interest groups
sued
the state,
> arguing the law requires provisions for hand recounts in every county,
no
matter what
> voting technology is used.
> Administrative Law Judge Susan Kirkland agreed, writing that state law
clearly
> contemplates "that manual recounts will be done on each certified voting
system, including
> the touchscreen voting systems."
> With a primary election Tuesday and more than half the state's voters in
counties that use
> touchscreens, it is not clear what those counties will do.
> Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who issued the ruling preventing manual
recounts in
> touchscreen counties in April, was considering appealing Friday's
decision, a spokeswoman
> said. An appeal would keep Hood's rule in place.
$100.00 says she's a conseravtive republican!
> Elections supervisors in some of the 15 counties with touchscreens had
asked the state
> what they should do about a law requiring manual recounts when elections
are particularly
> close, because the machines the counties use are not programmed to
create
a paper record
> of each vote.
> The Division of Elections issued the rule in April saying that because
touchscreens do not
> let people vote for the same candidate twice or unintentionally fail to
vote in a
> particular race, there was no reason for touchscreen counties to conduct
hand recounts.
> "The touchscreen machines were put in place to avoid the problems that
were encountered in
> the 2000 election," said Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for Hood who
criticized
Friday's
> ruling. "This ruling is a step backward to that time."
> Florida's voting system has been under scrutiny since 2000, when it took
five weeks of
> legal maneuvering and some recounting before Republican George W. Bush
was
declared
> president over Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites).
> In her ruling, Kirkland said the statute clearly requires manual
recounts
"when the margin
> of victory is one-quarter of a percent or less or when there is a proper
and timely
> request for a manual recount."
> Kurt Browning (news - web sites), the elections supervisor in Pasco
County, which has
> touchscreens, said his county had no plan for recounting by hand, and
said
there was no
> practical way to do so.
> But Vicki Cannon, the supervisor of elections in rural Nassau County,
north of
> Jacksonville, said she could do a hand recount of touchscreen votes if
the
election were
> close enough to require it.
> "Certainly we could if the state directed us to," Cannon said. "I would
assume that we
> would print our ballot records, and count the candidates' names. Time
consuming, maybe.
> Difficult? I don't think so."
> Officials in larger counties agreed a recount would take time.
> "It's not something that would just happen in a day ... at least a
week."
said Gisela
> Salas, deputy elections supervisor in Broward County, which has the most
voters in the
> state.
> Also Friday, a Maryland judge said he would decide next week whether the
state must take
> additional steps to ensure that Maryland's touchscreen voting machines
will provide an
> accurate vote count in November.
>
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