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ACLU Seeks to Intervene in Palm Beach County Verified Voting Lawsuit
UPDATE: On February 11, a Palm Beach County judge dismissed U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler's lawsuit against county Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore and Secretary of State Glenda Hood. As a result, the ACLU of Florida's motion to intervene also was dismissed.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 5, 2004
MEDIA CONTACT:
Alessandra Soler Meetze, Communications Director ACLU-FL, 305-576-2337
ext. 16
PALM BEACH - In a motion filed today in Palm Beach Circuit Court, the American Civil Liberties Union blasted Palm Beach County's touch-screen voting system, saying it lacks a reliable method for manually verifying ballots when recounts are mandated by law.
"The infamous hanging chads during the 2000 recount served as a wake-up call for election officials who were faced with the difficult task of determining the intent of the voter," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida. "Yet here we are - four years and millions of dollars later - having replaced punch card ballots with new high-tech touch-screen machines that don't allow for manual recounts and do little to restore voter confidence in the integrity of the voting process."
The ACLU of Florida's Palm Beach Chapter asked the county court for permission to intervene in the case filed by Congressman Robert Wexler against Palm Beach County and Florida election officials for their failure to conduct a manual recount – as mandated by state law – during a special election for District 91 of the Florida House of Representatives. State law mandates a manual recount "over votes" and "under votes" when the margin in an election is between one-quarter and one-half of a percent of the votes cast. A recount was not conducted during the recent special election to fill the vacated seat in Florida House District 91, even though the margin of victory was 12 votes and there were more than 130 ballots that were invalidated as "under votes."
The ACLU of Florida has argued that while providing for a voter verified paper trail may not be the ultimate answer to ensure the integrity of the voting process, given Florida's current choices in touch-screen voting technology, a paper record is necessary to audit the voting machines, to diagnose problems, to conduct a recount in a close election, and to provide a measure of voter confidence, especially given increasing voter unease over stories of hacking and malfunctions of voting equipment.
Congressman Wexler, who represents Florida's 19th Congressional District, filed suit against Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore, the Board of County Commissioners, and Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood arguing that the County's "paperless" touch-screen voting machines fail to provide a method to conduct legally mandated recounts. The ACLU goes one step further in its motion to intervene by urging election officials to outfit all of the county's touch-screen voting machines with printers that produce voter-verified paper trails for voters to view before the vote is finalized.
"The addition of a voter verifiable paper record of each individual ballot would enhance voter confidence that votes cast have been accurately recorded and would facilitate manual recounts of votes, when required under Florida law," according to James K. Green, ACLU volunteer attorney, who filed the motion on behalf of Ruth Gottlieb, Palm Beach ACLU Chair and the more than 2,800 ACLU members and supporters in Palm Beach County.
Earlier this week, the Palm Beach Board of County Commissioners voted to purchase printers to produce a paper record of each individual ballot as soon as such technology is certified by the Secretary of State. As a result, the County Commissioners have been dismissed from the lawsuit.
State election officials rewrote several Florida statutes after the disputed 2000 election to eliminate the punch card ballots and replace them with touch-screen or optical scan voting machines. But, the revamped laws fail to spell out the necessary procedures for recounting votes cast on touch-screen voting machines. The ACLU argues in its motion that it is "impossible" to conduct legally required manual recounts in the absence of voter-verified paper trails since there is "literally nothing to recount manually."
"We must be sure that every vote cast is tabulated fairly and accurately – especially when it comes to the need for a recount here in Palm Beach County, said ACLU of Florida Palm Beach County Chapter President Ruth Gottlieb. "A voter verifiable paper trail will give voters that guarantee."
