Florida Voters Join Emergency Petition for Access to Voting Machine Information
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
Appeals Court Review Sought in Lawsuit Over Contested Congressional Race
TALLAHASSEE, FL - Voters from Sarasota County who are contesting the election
in Florida's 13th Congressional District joined and added to an emergency
petition for review filed last Wednesday by candidate Christine Jennings in the
First District Court of Appeals. The petition asks the higher court for
expedited review of Leon Circuit Court Judge William L. Gary's December 29 order
denying plaintiffs access to the e-voting hardware, software and source code
used in November's election.
"The voters have a right to know what went wrong in this election," said
Rebecca Steele, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida's West
Central Regional office. "The Tallahassee court's ruling violates clearly
established law that people cannot be denied access to information they need to
prove their case. The court said there's no issue because the state's
audit - run by the very parties being sued - showed no problems. That
would be like denying Enron shareholders access to financial records because
Enron's auditors said 'everything was fine.'"
According to the
initial results, the machines in Sarasota County did not register a vote in the
congressional race on over 18,000 ballots. Judge Gary denied attempts by voters
and Jennings to compel Elections Systems & Software (ES&S), the company
that operates the machines, to turn over its technology for independent expert
examination, even after they had agreed to a protective order designed to
protect ES&S's claimed trade secrets. The ACLU maintains that Judge Gary's
decision put the interests of private corporate and political interests ahead of
Florida voters.
ES&S's own expert admitted during the hearing
that the "undervote" rate was abnormally high and that machine malfunction could
not be ruled out as the cause. Furthermore, Judge Gary cited in his decision an
unsubstantiated report from an incomplete study being conducted by the Division
of Elections, which is a co-defendant in the case. The hearsay evidence was
allowed in the hearing over plaintiffs' objections without opportunity given to
cross-examine its authors.
The ACLU of Florida, VoterAction,
People for the American Way Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation
are representing the 11 Sarasota voters in an independent legal effort seeking
answers about the 18,000 missing votes in Sarasota County from the last general
election. The coalition is seeking a revote and thorough investigation of
the e-voting machines to ensure that such errors won't happen again. The
lawsuit is nonpartisan and not affiliated with either candidate from the
race. Lowell Finley, Co-Director of Voter Action, is serving as lead
counsel.