MIAMI – Eight days before Election Day, a federal judge ruled Monday that Florida’s touch-screen voting machines do not have to produce a paper record for use in case a recount becomes necessary.
And in Ohio, state Republicans withdrew thousands of more than 35,000 challenges to new voter registrations because of errors in their filings apparently caused by a computer glitch.
U.S. District Judge James Cohn said Florida’s touch-screen machines “provide sufficient safeguards” by warning voters if they have not cast a vote in a particular race and by allowing them to give their ballots a final review.
Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., had sought either a paper record or an order switching voters in 15 counties from touch-screens to optically scanned paper ballots by 2006.
The Florida secretary of state’s office has said the machines have had a successful track record since they were introduced to the state in 2002, following the punch-card debacle during the 2000 presidential election.
Wexler said he planned to appeal.
Ohio Republicans filed challenges Friday in 65 of Ohio’s 88 counties, saying mail sent to the newly registered voters was returned as undeliverable.
Over the weekend, the party withdrew about 4,700 challenges in Hamilton County because the names and addresses on the GOP list did not match voter rolls, and Franklin County officials in Columbus accepted 2,371 challenges, rejecting half of about 4,200 filed.
Challenged voters will be notified by mail that they are entitled to attend a hearing with proof of their address.
Even if they fail to show up, the elections board is not likely to throw out the registrations, said Matthew Damschroder, Franklin County’s elections chief and a Republican. Doing so could violate the federal right to vote even if the voter has failed to notify elections officials of an address change, he said.
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