Reply #24: Wexler asks court to ensure manual recounts in close races

[MelissaB]

Wexler asks court to ensure manual recounts in close races

Associated Press


MIAMI - Florida's touch-screen voting machines violate people's constitutional rights because they don't create a paper record of each ballot, a lawyer for U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler said Wednesday in a federal appeals court. But a state lawyer said the ATM-like devices are accurate and don't need a paper trail.

The Boca Raton Democrat sued the state and two county elections supervisors in March 2004 because the touch-screen machines don't create physical ballots that can be counted by hand when disputes arise in close races.

He argues that because the 15 Florida counties with touch-screens have a different recount procedure than the other 52 with machines that scan paper ballots, the state violates the Constitution's equal protection clause and the U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended the disputed presidential election in 2000. That ruling called for uniform recount standards throughout the state.

But a federal judge disagreed with Wexler in a ruling issued just before last year's presidential election. He said touch-screens "provide sufficient safeguards" of constitutional rights. Wexler challenged the decision to a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard arguments Wednesday.


More: http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/13351512.htm


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