Florida lawmakers want to expand the use of digital voting and tallying machines. Many of the state鈥檚 election managers are behind . But critics don鈥檛 want to leave the paper ballot behind.
Initially, Lady Lake Republican 鈥檚 bill was just meant to free up an under-used voting machine. Ballot booth touch screens are currently only available to Floridians with disabilities. Baxley explains.
鈥淢any times, those machines are sitting idle while other people are lined up and waiting. And it鈥檚 sort of just a practical thing of, saying why can鈥檛 they go over here and vote in this line? So we could expedite them as long as we鈥檙e giving priority and preference to those who have disability,鈥� Baxley said.
But Tuesday Baxley amended this bill in a pretty significant way. Now he wants to also let local election supervisors rely on digital votes for recounts. Currently, they have to physically re-scan each paper ballot by hand. The change means supervisors could tally digital images of the ballots, which are generated when the votes are first counted. Here鈥檚 Baxley again.
鈥淲hen you hand do things, you are more likely to make an error than if you utilize the technology that鈥erforms the same, all the time. It doesn鈥檛 have an opinion. It doesn鈥檛 get tired. It isn鈥檛 afraid of what the weather is. It just does its job,鈥� Baxley said.
Mark Earley supports the bill. He says digital recounts would be more effective and efficient.
鈥淲e would鈥檝e not only been able to find the paper very quickly because of the digital ballot sorting that is inherent in this audit system, the great power of it, it鈥檚 very visual and transparent. We could鈥檝e seen the problem ballots, assessed the images. And if the county commission or canvasing board so desired, they could have immediately said, 'Let鈥檚 go see these 60 ballots or these 38 ballots' or whatever it was that were in dispute, and we could鈥檝e pulled the paper very easily out of the box,"Earley said.
For all those having nightmares of digital votes being illegible, or even erased, Earley says the hard copy, paper ballots aren鈥檛 going anywhere.
鈥淭he paper鈥檚 still there. I鈥檓 never going to want to get rid of the paper. This gives us a better way to find the paper, the problem paper. That鈥檚, to me, what it鈥檚 all about. The way to find those needles in a haystack,鈥� Earley said.
But that鈥檚 not enough for French Brown, who represents , a nonprofit elections watchdog.
鈥淭he language in section one of the bill broadly redefines the term ballot to include any voter interface used indirectly to designate the elector鈥檚 ballot selection onto a sheet of paper," Brown said. "Verified Voting has concerns that allowing the full electorate to use these machines could negatively impact voter confidence and voting accuracy.鈥�
Democratic Senator of Miami is worried Baxley is taking a parliamentary shortcut with his new plan. By amending the bill after the Elections Committee approved it, Baxley sidestepped what likely would鈥檝e been a more stringent vetting process. That committee killed last year.
鈥淪enator, you know this was a bill I think many of us supported at the prior stop that had to do mainly with persons with disabilities," Rodriguez said. "And now it鈥檚 been amended to include language that many of us have not supported in a prior year.鈥�
Rodriguez is wary of electronic voting systems in general, and says the state's reputation still hasn't recovered from the botched 2000 presidential elections.
Even with those concerns, the bill passed, but barely, on a three to two vote. The measure has one more committee stop before it鈥檚 ready for the Senate floor.
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