http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-locvote22072205jul22,0,7255909.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
The ruling clears the way for fall elections minus
touch-screens, county leaders say.
By Kevin P. Connolly | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted July 22, 2005
DeLAND -- In a victory for Volusia County and foes of
paperless voting, a federal judge Thursday denied blind advocates' demand for
disability-accessible, touch-screen voting devices in Volusia for the Oct. 11
city elections.
U.S. District Judge John Antoon II said previous court cases
and existing federal law do not require equipment for visually disabled people
to vote independently.
Antoon also shot down arguments from attorneys for the
National Federation of the Blind and others suing Volusia County that a state
law requires accessible voting devices for elections after July 1.
He noted that accessibility requirements under the federal
Help America Vote Act take effect Jan. 1, and federal grants to help pay for
accessible devices must be returned if they are not spent by that date.
But the state law merely authorizes the use of electronic
voting devices and provides standards for certifying such equipment, Antoon
said in his six-page ruling.
The state law "simply has no bearing," he wrote in
his order denying the NFB's request for a preliminary injunction to force the
county to buy touch-screens. The devices allow the visually disabled to vote
using "audio ballots" and headphones.
Daniel F. Goldstein, a partner with the Baltimore-based firm
of Brown, Goldstein & Levy for the NFB and other plaintiffs, said he would
appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta.
"I'm disappointed, but it's not the end of the
case," Goldstein said.
County Council Chairman Frank Bruno said the ruling supports
his position "that we weren't in any violation of anything."
It gives the county the time it wanted for an alternative
device -- possibly a ballot-marking device with a disability-accessible
touch-screen interface called the AutoMark -- to be approved for Florida, Bruno
said.
The decision answers a question for Elections Supervisor Ann
McFall about whether she can conduct this fall's city elections without adding
touch-screens to Volusia's paper-based, optical-scan system.
Doug Towne, a disability consultant for the Florida Division
of Elections, said he was in "complete shock and dismay" about the
judge's decision.
"It's hard for me to even understand how you could read
this statute . . . and think it was anything other than a mandate from the
Legislature" to have accessible voting systems for elections after July 1.
The NFB and others filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando on
July 5 after a majority of County Council members voted in June against a
grant-funded contract to spend $776,935 for 210 touch-screen machines and
related equipment from Diebold Election Systems.
Council members who voted against the contract sided with
activists who expressed concern because they don't produce paper ballots that
can be checked in close elections and recounts.
In his ruling, Antoon noted that having such a feature has
"proved valuable in at least one of Florida's past elections."
Attorneys for the NFB alleged the County Council vote
violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. That claim, the
judge wrote, relied heavily on a federal case in which Senior U.S. District
Judge Wayne Alley agreed with disability advocates who sued Duval County in
2001 for accessible and independent voting.
Alley sided with the disability advocates in 2004 but stayed
his own order as the county appealed. But at least two other courts ruled
contrary to Alley in similar cases.
"Against the background of these cases and the
tentativeness of the court's decision [in the Duval case] this Court cannot
conclude that the state of the law is such that there is a substantial
likelihood that Plaintiffs will prevail in their action under the ADA,"
Antoon wrote.
The "substantial likelihood of success" standard
is one of four factors that must be met for a preliminary injunction.
Plaintiff Kathy Davis of Ormond Beach, president of the
National Federation of the Blind of Florida, said she and others will keep
pressing.
"I don't call this a failure, but a
disappointment," she said.
Kevin P. Connolly can be reached
at kconnolly@orlandosentinel.com
or 386-851-7934.
Copyright © 2005, Orlando Sentinel
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