shenan-agains

from AP:

�U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat, sued and demanded that all counties produce paper records.

In testimony this past week in Fort Lauderdale, the attorney for county elections chiefs said Wexler was playing politics, trying to "squeeze one more vote out" and "regress" to the confusing recounts of the 2000 election.

Florida law requires a manual recount in any race with a victory margin of one-quarter of 1 percent or less. In April, Hood issued an order prohibiting manual recounts on touch screens. The rule was struck down after the ACLU suit. On Oct. 15, exasperated officials issued new guidelines for recounting virtual votes.

Let's see... the touch screen machines can't produce a paper trail, but election officials want to assure us that every vote will be counted...

Hm... election officials propose rules prohibiting manual recounts for touch screen voting machines... Is this supposed to make us more confident that all votes will be accurately counted?

We need to closely re-examine the appointment of partisan election officials. Elections should be administered by non-partisan structures with no relationship to incumbent office holders. It seems to me there is an obvious conflict of interest anytime you have appointed, partisan officials in charge of elections.

In the wake of the 2000 recount debacle, our elections were supposed to have been made more transparent and fair, not less. If our elections are to be legitimate, there needs to be absolutely no doubt or uncertainty.

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