KNOW-THIS
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GOP flier: Don't trust Florida voting machines
 Wed Aug 18, 2004 12:10 am
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http://www.indystar.com/articles/1/166443-6331-010.html
GOP flier: Don't trust Florida voting machines
Republican Gov. Jeb Bush is irked by mailing telling voters to avoid touch-screen technology.
By Brent Kallestad
Associated Press
July 30, 2004
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Republican Gov. Jeb Bush has tried for months to convince Florida voters that touch-screen voting machines are reliable. His own party apparently hasn't gotten the message.
The state GOP paid for a flier critical of the new technology and sent it to some voters in South Florida, where a primary election is scheduled next month.
"The new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount," the message states. "Make sure your vote counts. Order your absentee ballot today."
That's what Democrats and a coalition of civil rights groups have been saying in legal challenges, trying to force the state to provide a paper trail in case the touch-screen machines malfunction.
"It is insulting that the leadership's own party would believe that the system is broke," said Sharon Lettman Pacheco, spokeswoman for People for the American Way.
The machines are being used in 15 of the state's largest counties.
The governor, unaware of the mailing beforehand, wasn't happy.
"I think he was disappointed that there would be any message that's out there that criticizes these machines," Bush spokeswoman Jill Bratina said.
President Bush, whose picture was featured on the GOP flier, wasn't happy either. "We did not authorize the use of the president's image," said campaign spokesman Reed Dickens. "It was inappropriate. I speak for the president, and it does not represent the views of the president."
Earlier this week, state election officials reported that a computer crash erased detailed records from Miami-Dade County's first widespread use of the touch-screen machines in the 2002 gubernatorial primaries and other elections.
Florida's voting system has been under scrutiny since 2000, when it took five weeks of legal maneuvering and some recounting before Republican George W. Bush was declared president over Democrat Al Gore. |
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