ORLANDO, Florida -- A U.S. district judge ruled Monday that Florida election officials have no legal obligation to provide voter-verifiable paper trails for electronic voting machines, but it would be better if they did.
In tossing out a suit brought by Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Florida), Judge James Cohn ruled that the touch-screen voting machines do not hinder the ability of election officials to determine the choice of voters in any race.
"Touch-screen machines eliminate the problems confronted during the 2000 election in having humans interpret voter intent based on ambiguous markings of the voter," Cohn wrote in his summary judgment.
Florida's electoral votes were in question for 36 days after the 2000 presidential election because of various problems, including people writing in the names of preferred candidates instead of marking bubbles beside their names, and the infamous pregnant, dimpled and hanging chads that clung to the now-outlawed punch-card ballots.
The e-voting machines, which more than half of Floridians will use to vote next week, were sold to election supervisors as a cure to voting woes, but critics have said the machines eliminate the ability to do a recount, and that they make problems worse. Wexler has been among the most vocal critics of the machines, bringing the suit against the Florida Department of State and south Florida election officials earlier this year. He said Monday he would appeal Cohn's ruling.
"This is not a fight that can be stopped with a simple ruling," he said. "It is a fight we will continue -- working in the courts, with the Florida legislature and with county officials."
But Cohn said Wexler's argument that no recount was possible was faulty. Thanks to changes in Florida law after 2000, canvassing boards need to determine a clear choice of a voter, not "voter intent."
"By pressing the button to cast his or her ballot on the touch-screen machines, the voter is making a definite selection," Cohn wrote. "In warning the voter of an undervote (an incomplete ballot) and allowing for a review process before a ballot is cast, touch-screen machines provide sufficient safeguards to ensure that a voter's undervote is intentional."
In a close race, Cohn agrees with election officials that printed images can serve as a verification of voters' choices.
Cohn did write that it would improve voter confidence to have a paper system in which voters could confirm their selections on a printout, but the Florida Division of Elections has not approved such a system for the state's touch-screen ballots.
