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CPSR on "Friend of Court" Brief in Florida Voting case
CPSR and
several other organizations submitted a Friend of the Court brief in
the "Wexler" case, an important Florida court case regarding electronic voting machines.
In an effort led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, CPSR and
several other organizations submitted a Friend of the Court brief in
the "Wexler" case. Florida Congressman Robert Wexler and others sued
the Florida Secretary of State and the Palm Beach and Indian River
County Supervisors of Elections in Federal Court. Wexler alleged that
electronic voting machines used in Florida violate the Equal Protection
and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US
Constitution, because the machines do not permit a meaningful recount
for close elections. (These machines are also known as Direct Recording
Electronic or "DRE" voting machines.)Voters who are forced to use electronic voting machines have less care taken in the integrity of their vote in close elections, thus raising a constitutional issue. When this case was heard last fall, CPSR participated in a Friend of the Court Brief.
Unfortunately, the court found for the defendants, and against Wexler and the other plaintiffs. The plaintiffs appealed, so CPSR recently participated in a second Friend of the Court brief. The final words of the brief are: "... advancing technology creates no waiver to Constitutional and statutory safeguards. The Florida Election Code requires that manual recounts be performed in close elections, a capacity that is lacking from the first generation of DREs but existing in both current versions of DREs and in various other modern voting technologies currently available. Amici respectfully request that this honorable Court reverse the decision of the trial court."
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