FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Monday, December 05, 2005

Paper Ballots

    Volusia
    County officials face a Jan. 1 deadline to buy handicapped-accessible voting machines. They can opt for touch-screen equipment manufactured by Diebold (the same company that makes the elections equipment the county already owns) but that don't produce paper ballots. Or they can scrap the entire system and turn to a Diebold competitor, Election Systems & Software.

    Bad faith on the part of state officials seems to be forcing the county toward the second, more expensive purchase -- the option Council Chairman Frank Bruno already advocates. Council members have a right to be furious at state election officials' reluctance to certify more reliable machines.

    There's a case to be made for defying federal and state mandates and taking the matter to court. The county stands to lose $700,000 in federal money if it doesn't meet the deadline set by the Help America Vote Act, but it's less than the county would spend to buy any handicapped-accessible system. The next election will be nine and a half months away by the time the council meets to discuss elections equipment, so there's time -- just barely -- to seek an injunction forcing the state to approve a paper-ballot system.
    "Stand ground".

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