The future of touchscreen voting technology is maybe gone as fast as it came in
His plan is to replace the touchscreens with optical scanning machines that produce a paper trail of voters' decisions, although according to Kathy Dent, Supervisor of Elections for Sarasota County Florida
The estimated cost of replacing the machines is more than $32 million and according to some voting officials, may take up to three years to complete.
Crist's decision may have been sparked by a massive undervote in the 2006 13th District Congressional Election in Sarasota County , Florida
An undervote is where a ballot is processed, but a voter does not vote in a certain race. In this case, 18,000 people who voted on November 4, 2006 did not mark either candidate in the District Congressional race.
Several lawsuits ensued, but on February 23 an audit report was released by the Florida Secretary of State and Florida State University
"It could have been the ballot design, voter intent or voter error," said Kathy Dent, Supervisor of Elections. With the touchscreen machines off the hook, the reason for the undervote still remains a mystery.
The People for the American Way Foundation have already countered the State Audit Report, saying that it was a whitewash and the result of a flawed process overseen by people with a stake in the outcome.
"Something went terribly wrong in Sarasota County
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Previous to the release of the State Report Sarasota County
Dent said she has defended touchscreen voting all along, but has to do what the voters want. "[The optical scanners] are a step backward in technology," she said, "but we have to maintain voter confidence."
The iVotronic machines used in the Sarasota County election were supplied by Election Systems and Software, based in Omaha , Neb.
"The Report just confirms our position all along, that our voting machines are very accurate," said Amanda Brown, spokesperson for ES&S.
Diebold, one of the largest voting machine manufacturers in the US , did not supply machines to Sarasota County but did have machines in 31 Florida
"There has been a lot of criticism of touchscreens, mainly because of a lack of familiarity with the users," said David Bear, spokesman for Diebold Election Services. "But they've proven to be extremely accurate and lessen the likelihood of unintentional voting.
The plans of the Florida government have already become actions in Washington D.C. Rep. Rush Holt (Dem.-New Jersey) is making a second attempt to pass a bill through the House of Representatives that will amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002. If approved, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007 will mandate the use of paper trials for all voting machines, as well as provide better accessibility to voting terminals for handicapped voters.
