Group challenges Florida rule on touchscreen recounts

[DoYouEverWonder]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/gen/ap/FL_Florida_Voting.html

July 7, 2004 - 5:27 p.m.


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ? A group sued the state Wednesday, hoping to reverse a Division of Elections rule that tells elections supervisors that they don't have to include touchscreen ballots in manual recounts.

The rule ignores the fact that machines can malfunction or be tampered with, according to the suit filed by a group calling itself the Voter Protection Coalition Round Table.

"The prohibition of a manual recount does in fact cover up ? perhaps not intentionally or maliciously ? malfunctioning machines and ... covers up when there is malicious tampering involved," said Alma Gonzalez, a lawyer representing the group.

While touchscreen ballot images can be printed, the Department of State told elections supervisors in April that they are not authorized to do so during a recount. Then Division of Elections Director Ed Kast determined that the touchscreen ballots do not fall into the state's recount laws because they leave no question about how voters intended to vote.

[leagalizeit]

1. people being turned away from the polls

a bit off topic, but does anyone know what happened with any investigations into allegations of people being turned away from the polls in Florida in 2000?

I haven't heard squat since then. ;-(

[librechik]

2. the NAACP (I believe) sued and then settled out of court

so the discovery never happened.

[lostnfound]

4. Here's link for official US Civil Rights Commission Report on it..

http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/pubsndx.htm

Voters were turned away because they were on a list of disqualified voters (because voter rolls were purged of mainly black people based on felonies that they had never committed) and because the polls were closed early or moved without notice.

There's a section with anecdotal infromation such as what you mentioned, as well as a findings section that concluded, among other things, that African American voters were nearly 10 times more likely to be disenfranchised than white voters.

Also it talks about the fact that machines were set up to 'kick out' invalid ballots in wealthier counties so that the voter could re-vote; while in poorer counties it simply didn't count the vote but did not alert the voter. Consequently, "in Gadsden County, the only county in the state with an African American majority, approximately one in eight voters was disenfranchised. In Leon County, on the other hand, which is home to the prosperous state capital and two state universities, fewer than two votes in 1,000 were not counted. In Florida, of the 100 precincts with the highest numbers of disqualified ballots, 83 of them are majority-black precincts."

A more entertaining place to read about this might be at the , under 'Theft of Presidency'. He is the one that broke the story (initially, while the election had not yet been decided).

[lostnfound]

5. PS Welcome to DU! nt

[schultzee]

3. Damn Florida, and Damn those corrupt machines!

[stickdog]

6. Wow! How dumb do these people think we are?

???

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Dumb enough

to allow twits like Glenda Hood to become Sec of State and dumb enough not to do much to change any of the laws that got us into this mess in the first place.

[dusty64]

7. Kick!

:kick: