HB 0541

1
A bill to be entitled
2An act relating to voting systems; amending s. 101.5606,
3F.S.; revising a requirement and providing additional
4requirements for voting systems that may be approved by
5the Department of State; providing an effective date.
6
7Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
8
9     Section 1.  Section 101.5606, Florida Statutes, is amended
10to read:
11     101.5606  Requirements for approval of systems.--No
12electronic or electromechanical voting system shall be approved
13by 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
16all persons and offices for whom and for which the elector is
17lawfully entitled to vote, and no others; to vote for as many
18persons for an office as the elector is entitled to vote for;
19and to vote for or against any question upon which the elector
20is entitled to vote.
21     (3)  It immediately rejects a ballot where the number of
22votes for an office or measure exceeds the number which the
23voter is entitled to cast or where the tabulating equipment
24reads the ballot as a ballot with no votes cast.
25     (4)  For systems using paper ballots, it accepts a rejected
26ballot pursuant to subsection (3) if a voter chooses to cast the
27ballot, but records no vote for any office that has been
28overvoted or undervoted.
29     (5)  It is capable of correctly counting votes.
30     (6)  It permits each voter at a primary election to vote
31only for the candidates seeking nomination by the political
32party in which such voter is registered, for any candidate for
33nonpartisan office, and for any question upon which the voter is
34entitled to vote.
35     (7)  At presidential elections it permits each elector, by
36one operation, to vote for all presidential electors of a party
37or for all presidential electors of candidates for President and
38Vice 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
41number of ballots tallied for a precinct, accumulating total
42votes by candidate for each office, and accumulating total votes
43for and against each question and issue of the ballots tallied
44for a precinct.
45     (10)  It is capable of tallying votes from ballots of
46different political parties from the same precinct, in the case
47of a primary election.
48     (11)  It is capable of automatically producing precinct
49totals in printed, marked, or punched form, or a combination
50thereof.
51     (12)  If it is of a type that which registers votes
52electronically, it will permit each voter to privately and
53independently change his or her vote for any candidate or upon
54any question appearing on the official ballot, or correct any
55error, up to the time that the voter takes the final step to
56register his or her vote and to have the vote computed.
57     (13)  It is capable of providing records from which the
58operation 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
61piercing of ballots by the voter.
62     (16)  It produces and retains a voter-verified permanent
63paper record with a manual audit capacity which records each
64vote to be cast and which is viewed by the voter from behind a
65window or other device before the ballot is cast.
66     (17)  It is furnished with illumination sufficient to
67enable the voter while in the booth to read the ballot.
68     (18)  It is equipped with an audio-stimulus voting feature
69that communicates the complete content of the ballot in a human
70voice and permits a voter who is blind or visually impaired to
71cast a secret ballot using, at the option of the voter, voice-
72only 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, 2005.


CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.