Florida Lawmakers Overwhelmingly Support Sweeping Election Reforms

MIAMI —  The Florida Legislature voted overwhelmingly Friday to outlaw punch card ballots and enact a single statewide voting system by next year, hoping to transform the state from an international embarrassment to the envy of the nation.

Six months after Florida plunged the U.S. presidency into a constitutional crisis for 36 anxious days before George W. Bush was declared a winner in the state, and thus the nation, legislators agreed to invest $32 million to upgrade the state’s voting machines to optical scanners by the September 2002 primary elections, increase voter education programs and better train poll workers.

“Florida led the country into an election disaster. And now they have shown the way to prevent further disasters,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Governmental Studies at the University of Virginia.

Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, the president’s brother, predicted that the reforms will make Florida “the envy of the nation.” Stung by the controversy surrounding his older brother’s squeaker win in Florida, he had made changing the election system a priority.

“If we had not done it, shame on us,” the governor said at a news conference in Tallahassee.

The measure didn’t pass until the final hours of the GOP-dominated Legislature’s annual session. The state House of Representatives voted 120 to 0, the Senate 38 to 2.

Many Florida counties already use ballots that can be tallied by an optical scanner; they allow voters to connect an arrow pointing to the candidate of their choice, or color in an oval, as on Florida lottery tickets or on college aptitude tests.

The legislation also leaves open the possibility that touch-screen voting machines could be used once they are certified as trustworthy. The machines allow voters to make their choice by placing their finger on a video display, like using bank ATMs.

The legislation allocates $32 million in public funds, including $24 million to help counties purchase optical scanners or other hardware. By decreeing statewide standards, and just as important, using tax dollars to fund them, Florida vaulted into the vanguard of U.S. efforts to ensure a uniform level of election fairness, observers said.

Georgia legislators have approved a bill requiring statewide electronic voting by 2003 but did not appropriate any money to do it. The Maryland Legislature has voted to require all counties to use a uniform system, possibly by 2002. (California legislators are considering various proposals to help counties modernize their voting equipment.)

Sabato, however, said the Florida legislation “is the most comprehensive and the best funding that I’ve seen in any state.”

Said Democratic state Sen. Daryl L. Jones, “Hopefully we have put together a package that will keep Florida from being embarrassed in the future.”

The legislation also mandates a standardized, statewide design for general election and primary ballots. One of last fall’s sharpest controversies arose over the so-called butterfly ballot in Palm Beach County. Local election supervisor Theresa LePore, a Democrat, said she devised the two-page ballot so its bigger typeface would be easier to read for the county’s many retirees. But the design led some county residents to vote mistakenly for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan when they thought they were punching the hole for Democrat Al Gore.

“I’m glad they finally have come to realize that we need a uniform set of standards around the state,” said LePore, who was roasted by both Democrats and Republicans for the butterfly idea.

In November and December, as the Sunshine State recounted--or decided whether to recount--its presidential vote, Americans learned a new arcane vocabulary including pregnant, hanging and dimpled chads, the uncertain results when voters didn’t push a pin through their punch card ballot hard enough.

For weeks, poll workers peered at tens of thousands of such contested ballots--unreadable by machines--searching for tiny holes or bumps that indicated a voter’s intent.

Under the final tally, Bush scraped through to victory by 537 votes out of about 6 million cast.

“Clearly, if what they passed had been in place a year ago, Al Gore would be in the White House and George Bush would be back in Texas,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said after Florida lawmakers acted.

Asked by reporters in Tallahassee whether the new measures would have made a difference on Nov. 7, Jeb Bush said: “The current occupant of the White House won the election. He won it every step of the way.”

The governor and Florida’s legislative leaders only agreed upon the changes in the election system on Wednesday, despite it being a priority throughout the 60-day session. Florida Democrats objected that the final result was tweaked to benefit Jeb Bush, who is expected to seek a second term in 2002. The measure prevents political candidates for statewide offices from matching campaign contributions from outside the state with public money; the governor doesn’t take public money and therefore is not beholden to campaign funding limits.

Democrats believe such matches are the only way they can keep pace in fund-raising with an incumbent governor who is brother of the president of the United States. “Some people have called this the Jeb Bush Reelection Campaign Act,” joked state Sen. Steve Geller, a Democrat.

The legislation, which could be signed by Jeb Bush next week, includes provisions to allow voters to correct mistakes that they have made on a ballot before leaving their voting station. It also seeks clearer standards for recount procedures, one of the main battlegrounds last fall as the question of who won the presidency was dragged into the courts. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris will be required to devise statewide standards on how to evaluate ambiguous ballots. Last fall, county election supervisors were told to rely on their own judgment.

Voters whose names are not on the rolls will be allowed to cast provisional ballots that will be counted if they are found to be properly registered. The legislation also is supposed to make it easier for Floridians serving in the military or living overseas to vote.

Said Republican state Rep. Johnny Byrd, the reforms will ensure “the vote of the people, not lawsuits, will determine who is elected.”