http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/8325298.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Posted on Thu, Apr. 01, 2004

HAND RECOUNTS

Bill could torpedo video-voting printouts

An elections bill says that hand recounts of votes are only for ballots marked with pencil. That makes skeptics of touch-screen voting upset.

BY STEVE HARRISON

sharrison@herald.com

TALLAHASSEE - The push to equip electronic voting machines with paper printers suffered a blow Wednesday when a Senate committee passed a bill forbidding manual recounts on touch-screen equipment.

A hand count of votes would only be allowed on ''marked ballots,'' where a canvassing board could determine voter intent through stray pencil marks.

But the bill could have unintended consequences, thwarting a drive to use paper printers as a backup to touch-screen voting.

''Even if you had it, you wouldn't be able to use it,'' noted Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho. ``An opponent could say the canvassing board is forbidden to do it.''

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, has sued in federal court demanding that Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and other touch-screen voting counties use paper printers. His argument is that those counties' voters are treated differently.

''It is inconceivable to me that, after what happened in the 2000 presidential election, Republicans in Tallahassee would have the audacity to introduce legislation, which denies voters in the 15 Florida counties with touch-screen voting machines the means to conduct a manual recount, while leaving 52 counties with a way to conduct one,'' Wexler said in a statement.

The recount provision was part of a broad elections bill sponsored by state Sen. Anna Cowin, R-Leesburg. It passed the committee on ethics and elections unanimously. It's scheduled to be heard by four other Senate committees.

Close races would still be subject to a mechanical recount in all counties.

Pasco County elections supervisor Kurt Browning spoke in favor of the bill, stressing that electronic equipment doesn't allow overvotes -- where someone votes more than once in a single race -- so there is nothing to count by hand. And he added that voters have the right not to vote in races, thus registering an ``undervote.''

University of Miami law professor Martha Mahoney spoke against the bill, saying electronic counties need the luxury to review votes by hand.

''If we do away with manual recounts we are in danger of having votes not being counted,'' she said.