(FL Fed Appeals) Court reviewing dispute over state's system of voting

[seafan]

Posted on Thu, Dec. 08, 2005
BY JAY WEAVER



Three judges heard arguments on whether the state's current system of voting and recounting ballots violates the Constitution.
An unsettled legal fight smoldering since Florida's hotly disputed 2000 presidential election rekindled Wednesday in a Miami federal appellate court.

Three members of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on whether the state's current system of voting violates the Constitution because some Floridians vote on electronic touch-screen machines and others on optical scan ballots.
''They are not treating voters the same,'' Washington, D.C., attorney Robert Peck argued, citing ''election glitches'' in Florida with touch-screen machines that cannot produce voter printouts for manual recounts in the same way as optical-scan ballots.

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Florida, has led the lawsuit that calls on Florida to institute a paper trail in 15 counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward counties, that use touch-screen voting machines.

...

He filed the suit on March 8, 2004, under the U.S. Supreme Court precedent set by Bush v. Gore in the 2000 presidential election, which requires uniform standards throughout a state when conducting a manual recount.
Outside the Miami federal courthouse, Wexler argued that 52 Florida counties with optical scan machines have a means to conduct a manual recount, while such recounts cannot be done in 15 other counties with touch-screen machines.

He said Florida is currently not in compliance with the Bush v. Gore standard and the Constitution's equal protection clause.

...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/13355043.htm

[texpatriot2004]

1. K & R nm

[seafan]

2. More from the Sun-Sentinel: Wexler is in the trenches for us.

Three federal appellate court judges listened to oral arguments and quizzed lawyers about whether the lack of paper receipts, and thus the inability to conduct a manual recount in tight elections, violates voters' constitutional rights.

...

Wexler's legal team argued that when a hand count is necessary, those votes will be protected while the people in the 15 counties will be disenfranchised.

Rick Figlio, a state deputy solicitor general, argued that the touch-screen machines are accurate and warn voters when their ballots are incomplete. The computers allow voters to revise their selections before submitting the ballot. That's enough indication, Figlio argued that a no-vote in a given race was an intentional act on behalf of the voter.

...

Dubina grilled Figlio about how a politician could get a manual recount in a county with touch-screen machines. Figlio said a manual recount would not be possible. The judges also asked several questions about the viability of attaching printers to the touch-screen machines to give voters confidence that their ballots were tabulated correctly.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-sballot08dec08,0,1598476.story?coll=sfla-news-broward


And another clip from the Palm Beach Post:

U.S. District Judge James Cohn rejected the Delray Beach Democrat's lawsuit last year.

In seeking to have Cohn's decision overturned, Wexler attorney Robert Peck told the appeals panel Wednesday that allowing manual recounts in some counties and not others amounts to the same kind of "arbitrary and disparate treatment" of voters that the Supreme Court decried in Bush vs. Gore.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2005/12/08/a21a_voting_1208.html


This is how to fight this battle. Use the Bush v Gore precedent of disenfranchisement.

The Bushies claimed in Bush v Gore that to count all votes cast on different types of voting machines would disenfranchise Bush, ...er, the voters... because different standards of determining voter intent were necessary to do it.

And so, now that Wexler is arguing for standardizing the paper trails for all voters (so they can be counted in the same manner of voter intent), we can see the utter fallibility, hypocrisy and partisanship that taints the Bush v Gore *decision*.

And so, here we are today.

[tkmorris]

3. Wexler is my Rep

And he is the man. He has an extremely bright future, and, unlike other "rising stars" ie Barack Obama, he is unafraid to take a stance. Watch this guy folks.

[Wilms]

4. Good news. n/t

[PhilipShore]

5. I won, get over it.

I won, the same 11th circuit court appeals in Georgia. I had a three court panel of judges, and they issued a five page written opinion.

I frankly thought I had a 1% chance of winning but I won--and I am not a lawyer. And the three judge panel were the all Republican Judges.In fact, the Republican panel overruled the liberal panel that literally worked for Robert kennedy in my favor.

Get over it.

I won.

[diva77]

6. you won what?