A judge says touch screen counties can't do manual recounts until a rule's appeal period ends.
By Associated Press
Published August 31, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - A rule barring 15 counties that use touch screen voting systems from conducting hand recounts will remain in place until after today's primary election, state officials said.
An administrative law judge on Friday said the state rule is invalid, but it will stand until the 30-day appeal period expires under Florida law, Dawn Roberts, director of the Division of Elections, said Monday in a memorandum.
If any of the races in the 15 counties are so close today that state law would normally require a hand recount, one will not have to be done. More than half the state's voters are in counties that use touch screens, including Pinellas and Hillsborough.
Secretary of State Glenda Hood in April issued the rule preventing manual recounts in touch screen counties. The recount for touch screens would look at votes that didn't register for either candidate and try to count them.
The state hasn't decided yet whether to appeal the ruling, said Alia Faraj, a spokeswoman for Hood.
"In the meantime, we are going to be taking comment from interested parties, which include the machine manufacturers, supervisors of elections and all interested parties," Faraj said.
If the ruling isn't overturned on appeal, the state would use the comments to create an emergency rule for the November election, Faraj said.
A coalition of government watchdogs and other interest groups had sued the state, arguing that Florida law requires provisions for hand recounts in every county, no matter what voting technology is used.
Administrative Law Judge Susan B. Kirkland agreed and invalidated Hood's rule, writing that state law clearly contemplates "that manual recounts will be done on each certified voting system, including the touch screen voting systems."
Elections supervisors in some of the 15 counties with touch screens had asked the state what they should do about a law requiring manual recounts when elections are particularly close, because the machines the counties use aren't programmed to create a paper record of each vote.
Touch screens don't let people vote for more than one candidate in a race, known as an overvote, or to unintentionally fail to vote in a particular race, called an undervote. If they fail to vote in a race, the machines are programmed to alert them and prompt them to vote if it was an oversight.
