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A Times Editorial
Proposed rules for handling flawed ballots and conducting recounts would help to restore confidence in Florida's flawed election system.
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 19, 2001
The Florida Division of Elections has proposed new rules for determining voter intent on flawed ballots and for conducting recounts after a close election. The new rules would provide common-sense solutions for the kinds of problems that turned the 2000 presidential vote tally into a circus, and they should go a long way toward protecting the right of Floridians to a fair and accurate vote count.
Punch card voting machines have been outlawed in Florida, and counties must choose between optical scanners and electronic machines for future elections. Nearly all of the rules involving voter intent relate to errors that could happen with optical scanners, which require voters to mark their ballots by hand by filling in a designated space next to a candidate's name. In every election, a small percentage of voters don't follow the rules. Either through confusion or misunderstanding, they select candidates in a variety of ways, often by circling or underlining the candidate's name or by marking the appropriate space but failing to fill it in properly.
While those votes will not be valid in machine counts, the voter's intent should be considered in hand recounts as long as the choice is clear. That was often difficult with punch cards, with their hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads. The proposed rules are specific and cover the common mistakes found on hand-marked ballots.
A new law passed in the last legislative session also makes it clear when recounts must take place. Machine recounts are required when the winning vote total is within .5-percent of the next candidate's numbers, and hand recounts of overvotes and undervotes are required when the difference is .25-percent or less.
The proposed rules for recount procedures also should be welcomed by Florida voters. There were no uniform procedures in 2000, so county canvassing boards had to wing it. Many voters will remember the havoc as canvassing boards sat haggling over votes while vocal interest groups tried to influence the outcome. That shouldn't happen in the future.
Canvassing boards will be given specific procedural steps to take in recounts, which will protect the right of candidates and the public to observe the proceedings. In the event of a disturbance, however, they will be told to stop the recount until order is restored. If these rules had been in place in 2000, Floridians would have had much more confidence in the outcome.
There's a reason the proposed rules are thorough and practical: Division of Elections Director Clay Roberts sought the advice of the state's supervisors of elections before writing the rules. Although Secretary of State Katherine Harris wasn't actively involved in the process, she did approve the rules. Harris has been correctly criticized in the past for neglecting her election duties, but she should get credit for addressing many of the problems.
Public hearings on the proposed rules will be held before they become law, and they may need some minor tweaking. But the state elections office has made a good start toward bringing order to last year's election chaos.