Touch-screen voting audits sought
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Based on reports and evidence suggesting touch-screen voting machines in Florida produced high voter error rates during recent elections, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson Monday called on the U.S. Justice Department and Florida’s Secretary of State to conduct independent audits of the electronic devices.
In letters sent Monday to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, Nelson argued the audits were warranted because results from March’s presidential preference primary and recent elections in south Florida indicated counties using touch-screen devices had higher voter error rates than ones using older technology.
Nelson cited, among other things, a recent report revealing counties with touch-screen voting devices had eight times as many voters who failed to cast ballots during March’s presidential preference primary than ones using optical scanners. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s analysis of some 350,000 ballots statewide found 2,193 voters failed to cast ballots using touch-screen devices versus 176 by those using the scanners.
“I’d like to know why voters in touch-screen counties are eight times more likely than the rest of state to leave the voting booth without casting a ballot, especially when there’s only one race on the ticket,” Nelson said Monday while holding office hours in his Tallahassee regional office. “It’s a troubling statistic and one that may reveal a greater problem exists.”
“We need to act now while there’s still time to ensure this fall’s ballots will be counted accurately and fairly.”
Citing the Justice Department’s legal responsibility to protect minorities from voting procedures that deny them an opportunity to vote, Nelson called on the agency to conduct a statewide independent audit of touch-screen voting machines or take other actions necessary to ensure the systems were reliable and did not disproportionately affect the civil rights of minorities.
In his letter to Secretary of State Glenda Hood, Nelson requested the state reconsider a recent decision rejecting independent audits of touch-screen voting machines in use in 15 of the state’s 67 counties. In June, Governor Bush and Secretary Hood turned down a request by the Miami-Dade Election Reform Commission calling for audits.
The 15 counties using touch-screen voting machines include Broward, Collier, Indian River, Lee, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Sumter, Charlotte, Hillsborough, Lake, Martin, Nassau, Pasco and Sarasota. Collectively they contained 53.6 percent of African-Americans registered to vote in the state during March’s presidential preference primary.
Nelson’s announcement comes just days after Florida election officials reversed a decision that would have forced county election supervisors to purge from the voter rolls a list of 47,000 felons compiled by the state. Just last month, Nelson joined CNN in a successful lawsuit forcing election officials to make public the list of suspected felons.
Contact:
Dan McLaughlin; or,
Bryan Gulley
( 202 ) 224-1679
( 202 ) 309-1985
