South Florida groups calls for elections' audit

By BRENT KALLESTAD
Associated Press Writer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush should increase voter confidence by calling Florida's Legislature into special session to order an independent audit of the state's voting system, a group of South Florida activists said Tuesday.

The organization, which calls itself the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, wants audits of all touchscreen electronic voting machines used in 15 Florida counties during the Aug. 31 primary.

The other 52 counties use optical scan machines, in which voters mark a box on a paper ballot, which is then read by machine.

"He can either be the leader in election reform or he can stick his head in the sand and do nothing," said Sandy Wayland, spokeswoman for the coalition.

The group wants to be sure the machines record the touchscreen vote, tabulate it accurately and then produce a paper report showing what happened.

Bush's office, however, isn't worried.

"We're not going to engage in every accusation du juor from people whose goal it is to undermine voter confidence," Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre said Tuesday. "We have every confidence the Department of State, Division of Elections and 67 elections supervisors around the state and voters should too."

Wayland pointed to problems in South Florida voting last fall and suggested Bush use some of the $47 million received earlier this month under the Help American Vote Act to pay for the audits.

"What better use can there be for this money?" Wayland asked, adding the governor call the special session if necessary to get the dollars.

She was joined at the news conference by officials from the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Florida Association of Federal, State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the League of Women Voters.

The state was embarrassed in 2000 when ballot foul-ups and voters' punch-card mismarkings complicated a series of recounts made necessary by an extremely close presidential election. President Bush eventually won by 537 votes after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in his favor.

Then in 2002, the state was embarrassed again by botched elections in South Florida.