BBV: Quest for paper vote trail heats up (FL & Jimmy Carter comment)

State elections chief Glenda Hood vows ruling soon, while critics say she's stalling

By David Damron | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 30, 2004


With the 2004 election barely a month away, Gov. Jeb Bush's election chief is seeking another round of opinions this week on how to recount votes cast on paperless electronic voting machines.

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Critics described Hood's action as an effort to keep Florida's election reforms out of court, and as a way to run out the clock before safeguards can be added to the touch-screen technology used in 15 counties where more than half the state's voters live.

They said Hood sought opinions several weeks ago on how to provide a paper record of electronic votes, only to reject them.

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Former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat and veteran international election monitor, has called Hood and other Florida election officials "highly partisan" and said "requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida."

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In fact, both sides agree that reprinting "ballot image files" does not do that. Instead, such printouts merely replicate whatever record the voting machine reported in its first output of election results. It would simply repeat any errors.

more...(reg req)


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