Judge Dismisses Suit Seeking Paper Ballots In Florida

[dogday]

Judge dismisses suit seeking paper trail for touch-screen machines

ADRIAN SAINZ

Associated Press


MIAMI - The state will not be forced to create a paper record in case of tight races on touch-screen voting machines, a judge ruled Monday in upholding an emergency rule setting standards for electronic voting recounts.

Touch-screen machines "provide sufficient safeguards" of constitutional rights by warning voters if they didn't vote in a race and by allowing a final ballot review, U.S. District Judge James Cohn wrote in a 25-page order.

Also Monday, a federal judge in Jacksonville turned down a request to force Duval County to install four additional early voting sites.

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat, sued to create a paper record for manual recounts in close elections like the contentious 2000 presidential race or an order switching more than half of the state's voters in 15 counties from touch-screens to optical scan voting with paper ballots by 2006.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/breaking_news/10013504.htm

[flordehinojos]

1. this judge must be a protege of antonin scalia and he must also be a bush

shill.

i cannot believe that a JUDGE ... a man who is supposed to stand in for JUSTICE would rule against a paper record for manual recounts to prevent election fraud from ever happening again. we the voters have been smeared with bush feces too many times--and this judge is serving us the florida voters one more bush feces platter full.

[Avalux]

2. U.S. District Judge James Cohn (to put this in perspective):

The same judge who dismissed Congressman Wexler's case against electronic voting:

Federal Judge Rejects Wexler’s Challenge to Electronic Voting. U.S. District Judge James Cohn has rejected Rep. Robert Wexler’s challenge to Florida’s use of electronic “touchscreen” voting machines. The final judgment issued on Monday is now available on the Election Law @ Moritz website. Judge Cohn concludes that Florida’s use of electronic voting is consistent with the Equal Protection Clause, as interpreted in Bush v. Gore, and with state law.
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/analysis/041027a.html

And I turned up this little tidbit - light sentence for white republican bomber:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A man accused of plotting to fire bomb abortion clinics, churches he disagree with and gay bars was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison after a judge decided he is not a terrorist under federal sentencing rules.

Stephen John Jordi, who was turned in by relatives and church members, received the minimum mandatory sentence. U.S. District Judge James Cohn rejected a prosecution request for a prison term of seven to 10 years.

The judge said federal sentencing rules require that plots have an international component to be considered terrorism.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/9107094.htm

[dogday]

3. Makes You See Just How Important The Placing Of These Judges

is....

[Avalux]

4. yes - and Florida is a lost cause

It's firmly in the grip of the repugs and we'll never make any headway there. Ohio is almost gone too.

[dogday]

5. Kiss Your Voice Goodbye Florida

[meow2u3]

6. How much did he get under the table?

I mean, how much did the BFEE pay him under the table to rule in favor of cheating with impunity?

[Just Me]

7. Incredible.

Since when does the judiciary give preferential treatment to the interests of "the state" rather than "the people"?

Disgusting!!!