Why Voting Needs a Paper Trail

In an effort to break the distrust that still lingers in Florida seven years after the 2000 Presidential race, the state's newest Republican governor is doing something unheard of: He's teaming up with Democrats to pull the plug on the high-tech machines touted as the answer to election embarrassment and pushed by his technology loving predecessor, Jeb Bush.

After the 2000 Presidential election debacle, Florida officials responded to "hanging chads" and "butterfly ballots" by pumping millions into techno-savvy electronic voting machines. They justified the cost by saying those video arcade-like devices would forever end the controversy caused by stone age systems that included punch cards and paper ballots. They didn't.

Instead, a string of opponents from conspiracy theorists to computer analysts and civil libertarians said officials pushed the reforms too radically and blasted touch-screens for their lack of the human element. Human error was largely to blame for the 2000 fiasco ultimately resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, but a fully electronic system would have limited ability to retabulate votes in a close contest.

On Thursday, newly elected Florida Governor Charlie Crist and Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida unveiled a $32.5 million plan to replace touch screens with optical scanners capable of churning out a paper trail. Those video machines that remained for early ballots of voters with special needs would be equipped with printers. "You go to an ATM machine, you get some kind of a record. You go to the gas station, you get a record." Crist said a day early as he briefed newspaper editors. "If there's a need for a recount, it's important to have something to count."

If the Florida changes are successful, the implications may be nationwide. Similar video-based systems are used in 32 states. In Florida alone, Crist's proposal would affect more than 4,000 precincts in 15 counties, many of which were at the center of the 2000 storm. "The finish line is within sight," said Rep. Dan Gelber, Democratic leader in the Florida House. "We all recognize the errors and failures of paperless voting machines and I commend the Governor for recognizing that this has been a festering wound to our democratic system."

Crist's announcement marks the latest in a series of moves that distance him from a popular, more autocratic predecessor. Since taking office in January, Crist has put his political clout behind a handful of Bush taboos. He's backing state support for limited embryonic stem cell research, picked a top Democrat to run a critical agency post and called for the state-run hurricane insurance pool to compete head-to-head with private carriers.

The question is whether the Republican-dominated state legislature will go along with his voting scheme as they scratch their heads over the new leader and wonder what's coming next.