A 2000 era punch card vote is examined.
Photo: Wilfredo Lee/APFlorida just cannot seem to make up its mind over its voting machines. The southern state banned punch cards in favour of all-electronic, paperless voting machines after the hanging chad fiasco in the 2000 presidential election.
But it is now set to abandon them, reports the New York Times. Asked how he felt about spending around $32m (£16.2m) to convert all of Florida's voting machines to those that produce a paper trail in time for the 2008 election, Republican governor Charlie Crist told the paper:
The price of freedom is not cheap. The importance of a democratic system of voting that we can trust, that we can have confidence in, is incredibly important.
While the controversies have not been on the scale of 2000, touch-screen machines have brought their own problems. In last November's midterm elections, a glitch occurred in a close congressional contest in the Florida district of Sarasota.
The Republican candidate, Vern Buchanan, was declared the winner over Christine Jennings by 369 votes, even though one in eight or 18,000 voters did not register a vote amid concern that the paperless electronic voting machines "lost" the votes.
Critics have also said that the machines are susceptible to fraud. Computer experts have shown how it is possible to install a virus that could alter vote counts.
The Elephant Biz blog hopes Florida gets it right.
The last thing the nation needs is another contested presidential election that comes down to a disputed vote in Florida.
.png?w=600)
