Challenge of Paperless Touchscreen Voting Machines Allowed to Proceed

Wexler v. Lepore, No. 04-80216-CIV, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Fla.

The Center for Constitutional Litigation, working with Jeff Liggio, an AAJ Governor from Florida, represent Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), two county commissioners and a voter in a challenge to the paperless touchscreen voting machines adopted in 15 Florida counties. On September 27, 2004, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in Wexler's favor, allowing Plaintiffs to return to the federal district court for the merits of the case. A trial took place October 18-20, 2004 and a decision is pending.

The substance of the action is that by adopting paperless touchscreen voting machines in 15 Florida counties, while 52 other counties have optical scan voting machines capable of manual recount, the elections officials in Florida denied equal protection to the voters. In the district court, the case had been dismissed under the mistaken belief that a parallel state court action foreclosed a separate federal constitutional challenge. In vacating and remanding, the 11th Circuit agreed with Wexler's argument that neither considerations of federalism nor comity forecloses parallel constitutional challenges.

The Center for Constitutional Litigation, PC, is a law firm established in 2001 to promote the rights of access to courts and jury trial and to fight so-called "tort reform."