Overview

Since the 2000 election debacle, we have seen a steady stream of voting machine errors and questionable election results throughout the state. Fortunately, thanks to strong leadership from Governor Crist, and the still contested race for the 13th congressional district in Sarasota, Florida lawmakers have finally taken action to restore voter confidence in the state.

Governor Crist recently signed legislation to fully fund the purchase of optical scan voting machines that provide a voter-verified paper trail. This means that voting machines in every county will finally have a paper-trail and that when you go to vote in 2008, your vote is more likely to be counted accurately.

Unfortunately, they also approved a series of anti-democratic amendments to the bill, at the urging of big business and special interests. One of these provisions would stifle grass-roots voter registration efforts and another would severely weaken the ability of the Florida Elections Commission to investigate violations of campaign finance laws. Florida PIRG is working with allies and lawmakers on legislation that will fix these provisions.