In the closest of all possible votes, the Volusia County Council voted 4-3 against a proposed Diebold Election Systems, Inc. contract which would have placed one paperless touch-screen machine in every precinct in Volusia County, alongside the county's current optical scan machines.

The touch-screens, purportedly being purchased to serve the needs of the disabled, are passionately opposed by those Volusia citizens who understand that the right of the disabled to have a private, independent vote is meaningless unless that vote is accurately counted, recountable, and therefore verifiable. They also understand that having some votes on paper and others not renders an entire election non-verifiable and thus disenfranchises ALL voters.

Approximately 40 people spoke at the special County Council meeting, convened to decide the fate of the Diebold Contract. All but four spoke in favor of verifiable voting. One speaker, Kathy Shepard, herself disabled (or, as she phrased it, "differently-abled"), told Councillors that she felt used by the corporations and politicians who are promoting the touch-screen machines. "These machines disable us all," Shepard said.

Florida's Governor and Secretary of State have used heavy-handed tactics, placing huge pressure on the Volusia's County Councillors to purchase the non-verifiable machines. State officials recently summoned Council Chairman Frank Bruno to Tallahassee, the state's capitol, where he was threatened with everything from a lawsuit to innuendos that his job might be at risk. All the Councillors were told they would be breaking Florida law if they did not approve the touch-screen purchase by July 1st of this year.

Florida is the only state in the country to mandate the purchase of disabled-accessible voting machines by July 1, 2005 -- six months ahead of the federal January 1, 2006 date required by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Only three voting-machine vendors (Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia) are currently certified in Florida. To the distress of touch-screen opponents, the only machines that Florida has certified for use by the disabled are non-voter-verfifiable touch-screens.

In their vote against the non-verifiable voting machines, four courageous Volusia County Councillors stood up to the extreme pressure from the state. "I have to live with my conscience and I feel I did the right thing, said Chairman Bruno, who, despite his personal reprimand by state officials, voted against the Diebold machines. In an earlier meeting regarding the Diebold machines, Bruno said that the state's bullying felt like "extortion."

Bruno was joined in his gutsy vote by three other Councillors: Carl Persis, who had formerly voted against the machine, and two other Councillors, Art Giles and Dwight Lewis, who had previously voted for the machines but changed their vote this time, based on problems with the Diebold contract itself; documented problems with touch-screen machines around the country; and also in support of paper ballots and verified voting. After the meeting, Lewis said, "I just needed more information to decide what was right."

Voter activists have been keeping the pressure on the Council, choosing to educate and inform them as well as holding a "Save America's Verifiable Voting" Rally on May 19, which turned out over 100 residents. Using the acronym S.A.V.E., the group produced "Save America's Verifiable Voting"
t-shirts and buttons for the rally and wore the t-shirts to the Council meeting.

The voter activism was initiated by Florida Fair Elections Coalition (FFEC), a grassroots organization based in Volusia County that has become a thorn in the side of Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall, a proponent of the touch-screen machines. FFEC was joined in its efforts by local chapters of the ACLU, the Handicapped Adults of Volusia County, the Democratic Party, the Green Party, the NAACP, the Sierra Club, Peace DeLand, the Unitarian Universalist Church, Handicapped

David Dixon, President of the Handicapped Adults of Volusia County (HAVOC) and a member of Florida Fair Elections Coalition, is blind and is also a passionate proponent of verified voting. At a recent HAVOC meeting, the 22 members in attendance voted unanimously to oppose the touch-screen machines, thereby muting the argument that such opposition goes against the rights of the disabled. "I want to know that my vote counts," Dixon said at the Council meeting.

The next step for the County Council is unclear. Judge Michael McDermott, who was a member of the 3-person County Canvassing Board in 2000, is a vocal opponent of the touch-screen machines. At the Council meeting, McDermott recommended, as he did at the previous meeting on the subject, that the county sue the state in federal court to obtain an injunction against the July 1 date.

The state has thus far declined to say whether it will pursue legal action against the county.

Please write to the four courageous men who stood up for democracy in Volusia County. Their email addresses are:

fbruno@co.volusia.fl.us(Frank Bruno),
ddlewis@co.volusia.fl.us(Dwight Lewis),
agiles@co.volusia.fl.us(Art Giles),
cpersis@co.volusia.fl.us(Carl Persis)

Even the Councillors who voted in favor of the Diebold contract struggled with their decision, weighing their sense that they were breaking the law if they opposed the contract with their belief that keeping 100% paper ballots was a better solution. These Councillors also voted their conscience and are to be congratulated rather than criticized -- they also did what they believed was the right thing. (Editorial note: from our perspective, of course, they just need a little more education and encouragement). Their email addresses are:

jhayman@co.volusia.fl.us(Jack Hayman),
blong@co.volusia.fl.us(Bill Long),
jalexander@co.volusia.fl.us(Joie Alexander)

Please write to these Councillors so they will know that their actions today set a precedent that hopefully will influence others around the country to oppose any voting systems that do not offer a voter-verified paper trail. Beyond that, we are advocating PAPER BALLOTS over paper receipts, for a multiitude of reasons to be addressed in future correspondence. We are also recommending a combination of machine and hand counts of ballots to assure all voters that their votes do, in fact, count.

Susan Pynchon
Executive Director
Florida Fair Elections Coalition
DeLand, Florida
susan@floridafairelections.org
(386) 804-3131