Vote by Absentee Ballot!

After the voting debacle in Florida (and elsewhere) in 2000, the US Congress passed the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA) in 2002. $3.9 billion were earmarked to help states upgrade outmoded voting systems. Here in Florida (and other states) this has included the installation of touch-screen voting machines. The problem with this is that there is not always a means to recount all votes! The Verified Voting web site has a wealth of information outlining the problem, linking to articles about specific instances of audit difficulties, and including several suggestions for actions that one might take.

This press release from the Florida Department of State, includes this disturbing text (I've added the bolding to some of the text):

The Department of State, Division of Elections has been in routine contact with both vendors and national independent testing laboratories inquiring about printers and their development but we currently have no applications from any vendors for a voter verifiable paper trail machine. No vendor has any machines that will be available before the 2004 election cycle.

So if you are a Florida voter, what can you do? Register to vote via absentee ballot. If you are a Floridian, locate the web page for supervisor of elections for your county. The process varies by county. For those living in Hillsborough County (like me), you can apply online for an absentee ballot. Your application will be in effect for all elections in 2004, which at this point is the August 31 Primary and the November 2 General Election.

At this writing we are only 2 weeks away from the primary, so it may be too late to get an absentee ballot for the primary, but please do consider requesting an absentee ballot for the November 2, 2004 General Election. You can request your absentee ballot now for the November election, and still vote at your regular polling place for the August 31, 2004 primary.

Let's help ensure that this time every vote is counted!