Fla. Has New Rule on Touch - Screen Recounts

October 16, 2004

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida set new guidelines for recounting touch-screen ballots in close elections, but voter-rights groups said the court-ordered decision doesn't go nearly far enough to ensure a fair election.

Under the new rules, if a recount is needed, election officials must review a printout from each voting machine to count the so-called undervotes, or ballots on which no candidate was chosen. The equipment will be checked for problems if the number doesn't match the undervote totals given by the machine.

If the discrepancy remains, officials will rely on the original machine count.

State law requires a manual recount if the election is decided by less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the vote, as it was in the 2000 contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood had issued a rule barring manual recounts for touch-screen votes, but a judge in August ruled the manual-recount law applies no matter what voting technology is used.

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