On Thursday, Assembly Democrats sought to turn up the pressure by introducing legislation to counter the task force's election plan.
Gov. Jeb Bush's task force on election reform is wrapping up its work this week and will soon send recommendations for sweeping changes in the state's voting procedures and equipment to the governor and the State Legislature.
A13 Florida Voting Changes Gov. Jeb Bush's task force on election reform will recommend, among other things, that punch-card voting equipment be replaced with optical scanning systems next year.
And it was signed by several prominent McCain supporters in the state: Mitchell L. Morgan, a top fund-raiser; Sandra Schwartz Newman, a member of Mr. McCain's national task force monitoring Election Day voting, and I. Michael Coslov, a steel industry executive.
"There is nothing, at least to people in the elections business, new or earthshaking in there," said Sharon Priest, secretary of state of Arkansas, president of the National Association of Secretaries of State and chairwoman of the association's task force on election standards, which produced the resolution.
At the Tuesday meeting of President Trump's task force on election fraud, members heard a very unusual proposal: Run background checks on potential voters.
The recommendation for the increases came from the mayor's task force on elections.
John Ravitz, the executive director of the city's Board of Elections, gave a presentation yesterday on voting reform to members of a mayoral task force on modernizing elections and later oversaw a demonstration of the new devices to members of the board and the public, including several disabled residents.
A Florida election task force has voted to recommend that punchcard ballots be prohibited in state elections by next year.
Governor Bush, the president's brother, appointed an election task force, which has recommended that all counties switch to optical-scan voting machines by the 2002 election to avoid the problems of the punch-card systems.
Many say they are still disappointed that she dismantled Jim Florio's Highlands task force soon after her election in 1993.
