| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to voting systems; amending s. 101.5606, |
| 3 | F.S.; revising a requirement and providing additional |
| 4 | requirements for voting systems in order to be approved by |
| 5 | the Department of State; providing an effective date. |
| 6 |
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| 7 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 8 |
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| 9 | Section 1. Section 101.5606, Florida Statutes, is amended |
| 10 | to read: |
| 11 | 101.5606 Requirements for approval of systems.--No |
| 12 | electronic or electromechanical voting system shall be approved |
| 13 | by the Department of State unless it is so constructed that: |
| 14 | (1) It permits and requires voting in secrecy. |
| 15 | (2) It permits each elector to vote at any election for |
| 16 | all persons and offices for whom and for which the elector is |
| 17 | lawfully entitled to vote, and no others; to vote for as many |
| 18 | persons for an office as the elector is entitled to vote for; |
| 19 | and to vote for or against any question upon which the elector |
| 20 | is entitled to vote. |
| 21 | (3) It immediately rejects a ballot where the number of |
| 22 | votes for an office or measure exceeds the number which the |
| 23 | voter is entitled to cast or where the tabulating equipment |
| 24 | reads the ballot as a ballot with no votes cast. |
| 25 | (4) For systems using paper ballots, it accepts a rejected |
| 26 | ballot pursuant to subsection (3) if a voter chooses to cast the |
| 27 | ballot, but records no vote for any office that has been |
| 28 | overvoted or undervoted. |
| 29 | (5) It is capable of correctly counting votes. |
| 30 | (6) It permits each voter at a primary election to vote |
| 31 | only for the candidates seeking nomination by the political |
| 32 | party in which such voter is registered, for any candidate for |
| 33 | nonpartisan office, and for any question upon which the voter is |
| 34 | entitled to vote. |
| 35 | (7) At presidential elections it permits each elector, by |
| 36 | one operation, to vote for all presidential electors of a party |
| 37 | or for all presidential electors of candidates for President and |
| 38 | Vice President with no party affiliation. |
| 39 | (8) It provides a method for write-in voting. |
| 40 | (9) It is capable of accumulating a count of the specific |
| 41 | number of ballots tallied for a precinct, accumulating total |
| 42 | votes by candidate for each office, and accumulating total votes |
| 43 | for and against each question and issue of the ballots tallied |
| 44 | for a precinct. |
| 45 | (10) It is capable of tallying votes from ballots of |
| 46 | different political parties from the same precinct, in the case |
| 47 | of a primary election. |
| 48 | (11) It is capable of automatically producing precinct |
| 49 | totals in printed, marked, or punched form, or a combination |
| 50 | thereof. |
| 51 | (12) If it is of a type which registers votes |
| 52 | electronically, it will permit each voter to privately and |
| 53 | independently change his or her vote for any candidate or upon |
| 54 | any question appearing on the official ballot, or correct any |
| 55 | error, up to the time that the voter takes the final step to |
| 56 | register his or her vote and to have the vote computed. |
| 57 | (13) It is capable of providing records from which the |
| 58 | operation of the voting system may be audited. |
| 59 | (14) It uses a precinct-count tabulation system. |
| 60 | (15) It does not use an apparatus or device for the |
| 61 | piercing of ballots by the voter. |
| 62 | (16) It produces and retains a voter-verified permanent |
| 63 | paper record with a manual audit capacity which shall record |
| 64 | each vote to be cast and which shall be presented to the voter |
| 65 | from behind a window or other device before the ballot is cast. |
| 66 | (17) It is furnished with illumination sufficient to |
| 67 | enable voters while in the booth to read the ballots. |
| 68 | (18) It is equipped with an audio-stimulus voting feature |
| 69 | that communicates the complete content of the ballot in a human |
| 70 | voice which permits a voter who is blind or visually impaired to |
| 71 | cast a secret ballot using, at the option of the voter, voice- |
| 72 | only or tactile-discernible controls. |
| 73 | (19) It includes a sip and puff switch voting attachment. |
| 74 | Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2004. |