Court OKs Destruction of Unused 2000 Ballots
Unused butterfly ballots left over from the 2000 presidential election are not public records and can be destroyed, a state appeals court ruled in Tallahassee.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal unanimously denied an appeal by two voters who wanted the ballots preserved.
“Nothing could be more obvious than that a ballot becomes a public record once it is voted,” Chief Judge Charles J. Kahn Jr. wrote in the ruling.
“For purposes of the public records analysis, however, the unused ballots, en masse, are no different than cases of blank paper held in a government office.”
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