Voters in Florida will get a paper trail

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. —  Florida voters at the epicenter of the 2000 presidential election debacle will probably cast a ballot for George W. Bush’s successor on a machine that gives them proof they voted -- and for whom.

Heeding Gov. Charlie Crist’s call, state legislators are poised to require that all Florida counties be equipped with voting machines that provide a paper trail of each vote by fall 2008.

The Senate approved a massive elections package Friday that would set aside $28 million to help the 15 counties like Broward and Palm Beach, which currently use touch-screen computer terminals, purchase the new equipment. It also moves the state’s presidential primary to Jan. 29, a week ahead of New York’s and California’s.

The House, which takes up the package this week, is likely to approve the earlier primary and the mandate for new voting machines. “Now the rest of the country should have confidence in us having the early primary and ... taking care of our elections,” said Sen. Jeremy Ring (D-Parkland), who helped write the bill.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush had shunned efforts to junk the ATM-like touch screens in favor of machines that provide a written record of a vote. But Crist has joined Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Boca Raton), one of the harshest critics of the state’s elections system, in seeking new legislation in Tallahassee and Washington that would reassure voters their ballots were being tallied as they intended.

In July, the U.S. House is expected to consider legislation that would require machines that provide vote verification at all polling places in the nation.

Many Florida counties purchased the touch-screen terminals after the state banned punch-card ballots in the wake of the 2000 presidential fiasco with its hanging chads. After recounts and legal challenges, Republican George W. Bush, the former governor’s brother, won Florida’s electoral votes -- and the White House -- by 537 votes.

At least a dozen other states have recently moved their primaries to Feb. 5, despite a backlash from the national Republican and Democratic parties, which warned state lawmakers they could be punished by being barred from the national nominating conventions.

On Wednesday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean announced that if Florida moved up its primary, “anybody that campaigns in that state will be ineligible for any delegates from that state.”

The threat caused barely a ripple in Tallahassee, where Republicans and Democrats want the earlier primary to compel presidential candidates to campaign sooner and pay more attention to Floridians’ concerns.

“I’d love to see him [Dean] enforce that,” said Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller (D-Cooper City).

The elections package passed the Senate, 37 to 2.