Folks of a certain age may even remember the 2000 presidential election, when a toss of a U.S. Supreme Court coin gave the election to George W. Bush. He may have garnered 537 more votes than Al Gore in Florida.
The July legal challenge was filed by Audit Elections USA, some Florida political candidates, attorneys, the Florida Democratic Party and voters in the state.
I'm one of the plaintiffs.
I agreed to put my name on the lawsuit because I think common sense demands that we keep digital records of our votes.
The article I cited above offers another common sense reason to explain the lawsuit. It says: "Earlier this year, the Legislature approved a bill (HB 1005), signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June, to allow the use of digital images in a recount.
"It does not, however, require supervisors of elections to then keep those images as part of the permanent public record."
Exactly. Some do. Some don't.
The different decisions by the different county election bosses means Florida voters don't get treated the same way. It means that voters won't always feel that their votes really do count, even though we tell people to register to vote and turn out.
It's not enough to give people lip service vows that their votes count -- we need to prove it by keeping the digital images to demonstrate that Democratic and Republican authorities can count their votes if a recount is required by state law or court order.
The digital ballot image is a simple, easy way to give voters peace-of-mind in a Covid-19 world where voting machines sometimes break down or make mistakes, and agents for foreign governments seek to destroy our democracy.
I know this sounds alarmist. Maybe it is.
This screed may also serve as proof that I should take a course or two in nuance and complex legal reasoning. I am sure legal heavyweights for the parties being sued will produce tons of evidence to show why I don't know what I'm talking about.
That's ok. I'm not a lawyer.
I'm only a voter.
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