New ballots, new worries
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published April 30, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - The next evolution in Florida's ever-changing system of voting will feature something called "ballot on demand."
A citizen at any early voting site would receive a custom optical scan ballot, matching the voter's residence, language and party affiliation. A voter's choices would be marked on an optical scan ballot by filling in an oval next to each ballot question.
"The benefits of the ballot on demand system, from an election management standpoint, are numerous, " Gov. Charlie Crist told a congressional committee on March 23.
But the change worries a lot of local election supervisors, who run Florida elections.
They warn that it's risky to implement an untried system in Florida in a closely watched and high-turnout 2008 presidential election.
Crist, ever the optimist, has no such fears. He calls it a convenient, thrifty way to ensure paper trails at early voting sites, without the use of touch screen voting machines, which do not provide a paper trail and were discredited after a disputed congressional election in Sarasota.
Crist publicly embraced the ballot on demand idea last month, and decided to retrofit touch screens with printers only for voters with disabilities.
Ballot on demand has been tried in Florida, with absentee voters in last month's election, in one place: Crist's home county of Pinellas.
Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark said ballot on demand saved time and money in Pinellas' low-turnout March election, but that was done in a "controlled environment." Trying it in the 2008 presidential vote, with a much longer ballot, is another matter.
"My concern is implementing it statewide for the first time in a presidential election. That scares the heck out of me, " she said.
Clark is not alone.
Eleven other election supervisors, including Buddy Johnson in Hillsborough and Pasco's Brian Corley, sent a letter to Crist and his elections expert, Secretary of State Kurt Browning.
Supervisors said a ballot on demand system relies on a work force of part-time poll workers feeding multiple pages into ballot printers, and getting each ballot to the right voter fast, to keep the lines moving.
"Voter dissatisfaction will definitely increase if these limitations make voting times longer. Based on high early voter turnout during recent election cycles, this is almost guaranteed, " the 12 supervisors wrote.
In a followup letter, Terry Vaughan, president of the state association of election supervisors, told Crist that his members "are very concerned with placing into legislation a concept which has had limited use in voting situations."
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Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Lester Sola made the same point in testimony before the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee.
Noting that 25 percent of county voters cast early ballots in the last election, and the county prints hundreds of different ballot styles in three languages, Sola said: "The last thing you want is each voter having to sit there waiting while you're printing multiple-page ballots."
Diebold Election Systems operates ballot on demand systems in a number of areas, including King County Seattle Wash., where the firm was responsible for 22, 500 unique ballot styles.
Having multiple printers in place at each early voting site is important, Diebold spokesman Mark Radke said. He added the company is eager to offer it in Florida.
A bill creating ballot-on-demand voting is in legislation (SB 960-1010) that moves up the date of Florida's presidential primary to Jan. 29. The bill passed the Senate on Friday and is awaiting a House vote.
To some election supervisors, the shift to ballot on demand is happening with dizzying speed.
It has only been five years since 15 counties replaced the disgraced punch-card ballots with touch screens at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The touch screens are now quickly being phased out of existence, even though those counties still owe tens of millions of dollars for them.
Crist dismissed the notion that he's moving too fast with the ballot-on-demand system. The greater goal, he said, is to require a paper trail of every vote.
"I think it makes sense for the most precious right we have in democracy - your right to vote, " Crist said.
Secretary of State Browning recently went to Phoenix's Maricopa County, which uses ballot-on-demand voting for absentee ballots. He said he was confident it can be successful in Florida.
"I respectfully disagree with my former colleagues, " said Browning, the former Pasco election supervisor. "We have this fear of the unknown."
Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or (850) 224-7263.