(Florida) Senate vote ties primary-date move to paper ballots

Source: Miami Herald

BY GARY FINEOUT
April 17, 2007


TALLAHASSEE --
Florida Senate leaders, eager to replace touch-screen machines with ones that use paper ballots, have offered a simple deal to their House counterparts: Give us the voting machines and we'll move up the state's presidential primary date.
The House has already voted to move up the primary from its current date in March 2008 to Feb. 5 or even earlier -- Jan. 29 -- if New Hampshire holds its primary on Jan. 22. But House leaders have been reluctant to set aside any money to replace touch-screen machines in 15 counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward.


A Senate panel voted Tuesday to move the primary to the last Tuesday in January, but they placed the provision in a comprehensive elections bill that also calls for junking the ATM-style machines that have come under fire because votes are not recorded on paper.
''We believe very strongly in that paper-trail bill,'' said Sen. Lee Constantine, an Altamonte Springs Republican and chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections committee. ``We thought the primary bill was the one to place it on because it was the one the House has a strong interest in.''

.....

A House council approved a bill Tuesday that calls for scrapping touch-screen machines -- but the legislation says the change would not take place until a year after lawmakers set aside the money.
Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican sponsoring the presidential-primary deal, was cautious about whether the House would accept the Senate proposal.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/77550.html

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Looks like Speaker Marco Rubio wants his early primary AND a defeat for paper ballots, by ensuring that no funding is legislated until 364 days before Election 2008. No compromise for Rubio. He wants it all.

Jeb would be proud of his apprentice.