FL: Voting Paper Trail Could Be On Ballot

[Wilms]

Voting Paper Trail Could Be On Ballot

Jeremy Wallace

July 10. 2006

A Sarasota group has collected enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot that, if passed, would require a voter-verified paper trail for all computerized voting machines.

Patricia Rounds, a spokeswoman for the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections, said the group has met its requirement to get 12,030 signatures to get the measure on the November ballot. Sarasota Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent has already validated the signatures, clearing the path for the issue to get on the ballot.

In 2000, Sarasota County spent $4.7 million on sleek new computerized voting machines from Election Systems & Software, a Nebraska firm. But since buying them, Dent has faced frequent criticism from Democratic groups who say the computers can't be trusted. In 2004, the group pushed the Sarasota County Commission to force a paper record to be added to the machines. The five-member panel refused.

The ballot item isn't a done deal, yet. The group still needs to get the county commission to certify the proposed ballot language.

snip

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060710/COLUMNIST89/607100367

[Skink]

1. Somehow voting for paper trails seems odd.

[Wilms]

2. I caught that, too. n/t

[lindisfarne]

3. But didn't FL just pass a law outlawing re-counts? Will have to get that

law changed for a paper ballot to have any meaning. One step at a time though. A referendum on paper ballots is a good place to start (ridiculous that one has to fight for this right, but under * "democracy" one does).

[moose65]

4. So they'll vote on paper trails using machines??

Seems counter-productive to me!

[BeFree]

6. Why...

...do I have this feeling it won't pass?

[Kip Humphrey]

5. Oh, the irony!

[Wilms]

7. .