Sarasota Initiative Offers Voters Choice of Paper or Vapor

Sarasota County (Florida) Voters Will Choose Voting Technology

From the Lakeland (Florida) Ledger, Saturday, September 16, 2006

See original article in Lakeland Ledger

OR: http://tinyurl.com/l4jbg

SARASOTA
Voters in this Southwest Florida county [Sarasota] will be able to decide in November whether to continue using computerized voting booths or go back to paper ballots, a circuit judge ruled.

County attorneys argued a proposed ballot initiative asking voters to choose between the county's current electronic voting and the old paper system was unconstitutional. But Circuit Judge Robert B. Bennett Jr. ruled Wednesday that the initiative was legal.

Sarasota is among several Florida counties that bought paperless touch-screen voting machines after the controversy surrounding paper ballots in the 2000 election.

A group called Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections ( http://www.safevote.org ) is challenging the reliability of the machines, saying electronic voting leaves no paper trail and is vulnerable to tampering.