Congressman sues to get printouts of cast ballots

BOCA RATON - A congressman pushing to require electronic voting machines to produce a paper trail is taking his case to court.

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, filed a lawsuit Friday in Palm Beach County against Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood and Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore, claiming the officials are violating their duties to ensure votes are counted accurately by not using machines with paper printouts.

Wexler, who said he wrote Hood and LePore over the issue several months before he filed the suit, wants printed duplicates of all ballots cast on the electronic voting machines used in 15 Florida counties, including Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco. He said this is the only way to accurately recount ballots in a close race and, therefore, guarantee fair elections.

Elections supervisors across the state oppose spending more money on the machines, saying the voting systems already can provide a paper record of each person's vote.

Ellyn Bogdanoff won that election by 12 votes, but there were 134 undervotes, or ballots that did not register a choice for any candidates. Because all but the absentee ballots in that election were electronic, officials could not conduct a traditional manual recount.

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