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Cities will debut new vote system
By CHASE SQUIRES © St. Petersburg Times, published May 5, 2001 ZEPHYRHILLS -- Although municipal elections have sometimes drawn meager turnouts in the past, cities will lead Pasco County into the future of voting next year, county Supervisor of Elections Kurt Browning said Thursday. Browning, speaking at the quarterly meeting of the Municipal Association of Pasco, told assembled city leaders that as his office scrambles to replace the beleaguered punch card voting system with a new system, cities will get to test the new equipment in next April's municipal elections. "April 2002 will be the first year for a new system," Browning said. "And it will be your elections." Florida lawmakers on Friday finalized a voting reform package and sent it to Gov. Jeb Bush, who is expected to sign the package into law. The new measure would require every county to have optical-scan ballot systems ready by next year. The November elections cast a worldwide spotlight on the Sunshine State, when punch card irregularities and the ubiquitous chad held up the presidential election. Ironically, Browning said, the punch card era came to a rather strange end last month when Port Richey's municipal election wound up tied. Browning said other election reforms also are on the way, and cities may want to consider moving their April municipal elections to the county's September primary date as a way to both save money and generate more voter interest. The drawback of holding municipal elections on the same date as county and state primaries is that smaller cities might find their elections overshadowed by larger issues or risk having voters pass over the local contests, which are typically last on the ballot. On the plus side, he said, the more voters tend to show up for larger elections, and the county would pick up the tab for many of the costs. A municipal election can cost a city $5,000 or more, Browning said. By piggybacking on a countywide primary, cities may only have to pay for incidental expenses such as advertising, he said. Browning plans to press his case for touch scan voting machines at a meeting Tuesday with county commissioners in Dade City. An open house for voters to inspect five voting machine models is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 22 at the West Pasco Government Center. -- Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.
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