Election Officials Agree To Save Ballot Images In Case Of Recount

Clearwater FL

25 August, 2020

4:32 PM

Description

ACROSS FLORIDA — Just in time for November's presidential election, Florida election officials and election monitors have reached an agreement in an ongoing debate about the need to preserve digital ballot images in Florida. The agreement is part of an ongoing lawsuit brought by three state legislators, eight voters, a candidate for the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections and the Florida Democratic Party to require Florida officials to preserve the digital ballot images to be used to authenticate election results in case of a presidential recount. Supervisors of elections in Florida's eight most populous counties allow the ballot images to be destroyed despite federal and state laws requiring the preservation of all election materials, the lawsuit contended. Currently, 32 of Florida's 67 counties routinely preserve the ballot images. The parties to the lawsuit, including the Florida secretary of state, agreed to defer final resolution of the lawsuit until after the November election. In the meantime, the supervisors of elections in those eight counties agreed to retain the automatically created electronic ballot images and to make them available in the event of a presidential recount. "I am pleased by the agreement to retain the ballot images in the event there is another presidential recount in Florida," said John Brakey, founder and director of AUDIT Elections USA, a nonprofit nonpartisan group that encouraged Florida voters to pursue the action but is not a party to it. "We believe the law is clear that ballot images must be saved just as paper ballots, mail envelopes and other election materials must be saved." On Aug. 10, a trial court denied the supervisors of elections' motion to dismiss the case based on improper venue and other arguments. Once the supervisors indicated they would delay the case by appealing the venue ruling, the plaintiffs obtained temporary relief to protect the integrity of the presidential elections during any appeal. Defendants also raised concerns that requiring retention of images might pose delays in vote tabulation. While plaintiffs did not agree as to the likelihood of delays, all parties wanted to guarantee the accurate and efficient tabulation of the November votes and to avoid any public concern about the tabulation process. Therefore, all parties, including the secretary of state, agreed a resolution could wait until after the November election, provided the supervisors agreed to retain the ballot images in the event of a presidential recount. Chris Sautter, as counsel to AUDIT Elections USA, called the agreement to save the images "a milestone in the battle to make elections in Florida verifiable." "While AUDIT Elections USA does not agree with claims by the eight defendant SOEs that preserving ballot images will interfere with smooth election administration, our ultimate goal is increasing public confidence in our elections," Sautter said. "Although vendor manuals support our position that ballot images are public records and election materials that must be saved for 22 months, resolution of that can wait until after the most important election of our time given that defendant SOEs have agreed to preserve ballot images in the event of a presidential recount." Sautter said if there is any state in which ballot images need to be preserved in case of recounts, it's Florida. The state has been plagued by controversial elections including in the 2000 presidential recount and the 2018 statewide recounts. Sautter noted that Broward County officials "misplaced" 2,040 ballots during the 2018 recounts and destroyed all the paper ballots in a 2016 contested congressional primary. In an attempt to address these problems, the state Legislature passed a new law effective in January that permits ballot images to be used in recounts, a recognition by legislators that the images are public records. The agreement in the ballot images preservation case — signed by attorneys for the plaintiffs and supervisors of elections, and filed with the court on Monday — stipulates that the plaintiffs may renew prosecution of the case any time after Nov. 17 or following a presidential recount. The agreement also allows voters to urge supervisors of elections who are not already preserving ballot images to begin doing so immediately. "As a veteran of the 2000 recount, I am immensely gratified that both sides have agreed to the preservation of these ballot images in the event of a presidential recount," said Florida Rep. Joseph S. Geller, a plaintiff and one of the attorneys in the case. "Nothing could be more important than getting the presidential election right." Plaintiffs in the case include state Reps. Geraldine Thompson and Joseph S. Geller, state Sen. Victor M. Torres Jr., Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections candidate Dan Helm, the Florida Democratic Party and eight voters from various Florida counties. Defendants include the supervisors of elections in Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach and Pinellas counties.