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No More Chads, but Florida Voting Hassles Remain

Sunshine state loses millions of dollars ditching new touch-screen booths

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 13, 2007 11:12 AM CDT

(Newser) – Poor Florida. Seven years after the 2000 election fiasco, the state is overhauling its election system yet again, this time chucking touch-screen voting booths for a system that combines old-fashioned pen-and-paper ballots with optical scanning. And with many other states also ditching touch screens, no one wants to buy Florida’s now useless—and expensive—machines, the New York Times reports.

Touch screens have fallen out of vogue over worries about their reliability and their lack of a paper trail. But many election officials still trust the $5,000 machines and cringe at replacing them. “I think it’s a real waste of money,” said one. “I don’t have my heart in it, because I think we’re going 30 years backwards.”

Mayor Nicole Rivoire shows how to use an electronic voting machine at the town hall of Noisy-le-sec, outside Paris, Tuesday April 17, 2007. With electoral glitches in Florida high in mind, some French... (Associated Press)

After the polls had already opened, poll workers at the Garden Valley Neighborhood House in Cleveland try to get an electronic voting machine to start in this Nov. 7, 2006 file photo. Cuyahoga County... (Associated Press)

Touch-screen voting machines have not lived up to expectations. (Associated Press)

Mayor Nicole Rivoire' s hand shows how to use an electronic voting machine, at the town hall in Noisy-le-Sec, outside Paris, Tuesday April 17, 2007. With electoral glitches in Florida high in mind, some... (Associated Press)

Touch-screen voting machines have not lived up to expectations. (Associated Press)

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No More Chads, but Florida Voting Hassles Remain

Sunshine state loses millions of dollars ditching new touch-screen booths

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