Florida goes back to using paper ballots

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The era of butterfly ballots and hanging chad humiliation ended Monday as Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law sweeping election changes that eliminate electronic voting machines in favor of paper ballots and make Florida's presidential primary among the earliest in the nation.

The setting was symbolic: The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, where hordes of TV cameras beamed 24-hour updates worldwide during south Florida's 2000 presidential-election meltdown.

"The foundation of our democracy is our cherished right to vote," Crist said. "And to have that cherished right to vote in a system that we know is trustworthy."

Standing beside U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., a longtime champion of a paper trail, Crist called the elections law a breakthrough in restoring voter confidence in Florida.

The law does away with ATM-style touch-screen voting machines in 15 counties, including Palm Beach. Instead, voters will use paper ballots that are run through scanning machines. The main reason for the change: The optical-scan machines produce a paper trail that can be recounted in close elections.

Florida's elections process has been under klieg lights since the 2000 election, when irregular results from punch-card ballots left the presidency in limbo and made Palm Beach County's butterfly ballot fodder for late-night comedians. George W. Bush eventually defeated Al Gore by 537 votes in Florida.

Palm Beach County made the switch to touch-screen machines in 2002 — and almost immediately set off a campaign by Wexler and others to replace the electronic system with paper ballots. Last fall, in a Sarasota-area congressional election, raised more fears about electronic voting when touch screens recorded more than 18,000 blank votes.

"Politics post-2000 have been under great scrutiny and suspicion," said Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson.

Crist, who made the elections overhaul an early priority, basked in bipartisan praise on Monday for ending the paper-trail fight.

The federal government will cover the roughly $28 million cost to switch to optical-scan devices. Touch-screen machines will still be used during Florida's new Jan. 29 presidential preference primary, but paper ballots must be in place by the fall 2008 elections, with one exception. Touch screens still can be available for use by disabled voters until 2012.