Florida's Paper Ballots Come with a Catch
Wed May 23, 2007 at 07:49:31 AM PDT
A bill to replace the touch-screen voting machines used in 16 of Florida’s 67 counties with optical scanning equipment and paper ballots passed the Florida Legislature this session and Governor Crist, who pushed for the new voting machines, recently signed it into law.
Having paper ballots (not just a paper trail, but actual ballots) is a very good thing for the voters of Florida. Trouble is it wasn’t a clean bill. Knowing the demand for paper ballots the Republican dominated legislature piled on a bunch of extras.
While bill analysis is certainly not my specialty, I thought I’d take a stab at combing through all 80 pages of HB 537 to see what I could find.
The summary, which starts out with "An act relating to elections ..." and goes on with a semicolon delimited list of what the bill sets out to do is five and a half pages long or 154 lines to be more precise. I’ll try to point out the key provisions.
Collecting Voter Registrations
In the first two sections, the bill starts by reducing the fines on organizations collecting voter registrations who fail to get those applications to the supervisor of elections within a specified time frame and allowing a supervisor of elections the option to waive fines altogether.
Changing the Presidential Primary
Next, it changes the date of the Presidential preference primary to the last Tuesday in January and allows municipalities to move their election dates to coincide with this change. Now the DNC has to decide whether or not to follow through on its threat to yank the state’s delegates. It is also prompting a bit of musical chairs with the primary dates of other states.
Specifications for Ballots
Sections five and six deal with the specifications for ballots. Specifically, that there must be paper ballots and that ballots can be printed on-demand as needed at early voting sites. It also specifies that persons with disabilities shall vote using a "voter interface device that meets voter accessibility requirements."
Here’s an interesting twist. The Florida Voters Coalition and Florida Council for the Blind are resisting the use of DRE’s for people with disabilities:
"No exception needed or wanted for voters with disabilities," said Paul Edwards, former President of the American Council of the Blind, speaking for the Florida Council of the Blind, the state-wide chapter. "The very purpose of HAVA Section 301 was to provide an equal opportunity to voters with disabilities. 'Equal' doesn’t only apply to the ability to cast a private and independent ballot – something precious to blind and other disabled voters - it also applies to the ability to cast a secure ballot. Only optical scan paper ballot systems are secure in Florida today. Florida’s newly passed legislation requires paper ballots for everyone then provides an exception for voters with disabilities. Until 2012, counties can choose to provide us paperless electronic DREs. Our message today is, NO THANK YOU. We don’t want them and should not be forced to use them. Paperless electronic DRE voting systems are fit for no one."
I wonder if any of the politicians saw that coming.
Auditing of Voting Systems
The next few sections relate to the auditing of voting systems. It starts off sounding good: there will be an audit of random precincts consisting of both a public and manual counting of the ballots. But, then there’s this little tidbit:
"(4) The audit must be completed and the results made public no later than 11:59 p.m. on the 7th day following certification of the election by the county canvassing board or the local board responsible for certifying the election."
So, we’re going to certify the results as the official count before we audit them? In addition, the report on the audit from the local board can take up to two weeks to get to the Department of State. However, there doesn’t appear to be any language specifying what to do should the audit detect a serious discrepancy.
Purchase of Voting Equipment
The actual purchasing of the optical scan and ballot on demand equipment is relegated to the Secretary of State. The Secretary not only negotiates the purchase on behalf of the counties, but is also in charge of the sale of the DRE equipment with the proceeds of the sale going to the state. Counties may opt out of this provision, but still must acquire new voting systems.
Restrictions on Qualifying for Public Office
It is no longer required that Florida politicians resign their state or local elected position before they can run for federal office.
Initiative Procedure for Placement on the Ballot
The citizen initiative process just got a little more difficult. This section sets forth more requirements for a signature to be deemed valid and creates a procedure for signatures on a petition to be revoked by use of a petition-revocation form signed by the original petition signatory. This enables opposition groups (particularly those that are well financed) to contact petition signers and pressure them to withdraw their signature. Keep in mind, once an initiative makes it on the ballot, it has to get over 60% of the vote in order to pass.
Reports of violations to the Florida Elections Commission
The legislature placed tighter restrictions on filing complaints to the FEC and seems, to my novice eyes, to make it easier for any complaints filed to be dismissed. As Howard Troxler of the St. Petersburg Times put it: "rule breakers just about have to turn themselves in."
These are only some of the highlights. I realize I wasn't able to provide a detailed analysis of each provision and its implications, but I hope this quick summary gives you a better idea of what is contained in the legislation.
Having actual paper ballots is an absolute essential for the state of Florida and for the country. I'm happy that it became law. I just don't want people to become complacent now that we got one of the things we wanted. It came with a catch.
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