West Palm Beach,Fla-A state appeals court dismissed a lawsuit that sought a paper trail for Florida's new touchscreen voting machines,ruling friday that voters are not guaranteed "a perfect voting system".
U.S Rep. Robert Wexler,D-Fla.,had argued that the new machines will not allow for an accurate manual recount-such as the one needed during the 2000 presidential election fiasco. He sued Florida Secretary Of State Glenda Hood and Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore to force them to add a paper trail to the computerized machines.
Wexler's state lawsuit was dismissed Friday,but he is pursuing a similar complaint in federal court.
State officials say Friday's ruling proves again that Florida's new multimillion-dollar touchscreen voting machine will fix the problem seen with paper ballots.
"Florida's voters should have confidence that their vote will count on Election Day," said Alia Faraj,a spokeswoman for Hood.
The appeals court upholding a lower-court ruling,found that using a paperless voting system does not severely restrict the right to vote.
"States are entitled to broad leeway in enacting reasonable,evenhanded legislation to ensure that elections are carried out in a fair and orderly manner," the court wrote.
On the touchscreen system,voters mark their selections directly on a computer screen. Their votes are tabulated on the computer and no ballot is printed.
A judge also has dismissed Wexler's suit in federal court,but he has appealed that ruling.
"In the event of a close election,we want to be able to conduct a manual recount," said his spokeswoman,Lale Mamaux said.
The state appeals court noted that Hood adopted rules dealing with recounts and said if Wexler disagrees he should challenge them before a state administrative judge,which he has done.