[EM] Florida 2001 Election Reform Law

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

The law can be seen at

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Welcome/index.cfm

Type in S1118 in the upper left box and download the enrolled bill pdf (103 
pages).

One of the fraudulent *reforms* is abolishing the top 2 runoff primary in 
Florida *only* in 2002 (i.e. to make it easier for incumbent legislators to 
win the 2002 plurality winner primary elections). 

Thus, as far as I know---

41 States will have plurality primary winners

9 States will have top 2 runoff primaries for the 2001-2002 new U.S. 
Representative and State legislature gerrymanders due to the 2000 U.S.A. 
Census.

Plurality winners in general elections in all 50 States.

My standard general comment- any election reform method in the U.S.A. has to 
be rather simple (due to simple-minded politicians and judges and, of course, 
a fairly large percentage of moron voters -- whatever method is being used.).

Folks in many other countries with more accurate election methods are 
political light-years ahead of the U.S.A.
-------

Jeb Bush signs Florida ban on punch card ballots
  
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., May 9 (Reuters) - In the county at the heart of last 
November's disputed presidential election, Gov. Jeb Bush signed an election 
reform law on Wednesday to end the era of punch cards, hanging chads and 
butterfly ballots in Florida. 

Bush, whose brother George W. won the White House after a drawn-out Florida 
election ended when the U.S. Supreme Court halted ballot recounts, put his 
signature on a sweeping new state election law in Palm Beach County, where 
supporters of Democrat Al Gore believe a controversial butterfly ballot cost 
their candidate the presidency. 

Surrounded by some of the faces made famous by the election, including Palm 
Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore and Secretary of State 
Katherine Harris, Jeb Bush lauded the legislation as a model for the nation. 

"There'll be a standardized ballot design, which makes a lot of sense, and it 
will be unambiguous," he said. 

George W. Bush won the state's crucial 25 Electoral College votes only after 
a ferocious court battle with Gore that was ultimately decided by the U.S. 
Supreme Court. The divided high court halted hand recounts that Gore had 
hoped would produce enough votes to overturn Bush's 537-vote margin of 
victory. 

The legal chaos resulted from antiquated voting machines and punch card 
ballots on which the voter's intent was not clear, and election laws that set 
Democrats and Republicans at odds over whether ballots already counted by 
machines could be reexamined by hand. 

The new law, passed by the Florida House and Senate last week, sets statewide 
standards for elections and ushers in optical scanning systems in time for 
the 2002 vote. 

The bill mothballs punch card ballots, an outdated voting method that turned 
hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads into household words. In their place, the 
bill requires optical scanning machines or other electronic voting devices. 

"Never again will there be a hanging, dangling or impregnated chad in the 
state of Florida," Harris said. 

The law also sets up a uniform recount standard and directs the state 
Department of State to publish statewide rules on what constitutes voter 
intent. Differing standards became the focus of numerous lawsuits filed by 
Gore and Bush supporters following the Nov. 7 election. 

The elimination of punch cards would end the problem caused by chads, the 
tiny bits of paper voters are supposed to punch out of ballot cards. The old 
vote counting machines had trouble reading cards that were not cleanly 
punched. 

The reform law also bans the butterfly ballot that Gore supporters believe 
cost their man thousands of votes. The ballot put candidates' names on facing 
pages with punch holes in the middle. The alignment confused some voters, who 
punched holes for candidates they did not intend to choose. 

18:33 05-09-01