Florida's largest counties make switch to paper ballots
By Michael Vasquez and Amy Sherman | Miami Herald
With a few hiccups but no major headaches, South Florida entered a new voting era on Tuesday -- an era that felt a lot like, well, a 10th-grade American History exam.
''Just fill in the bubble, like back in school,'' said voter Matt Williams, 39, of Davie.
Local elections held in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties Tuesday marked the first time county-wide voters in each jurisdiction could use the region's new optical-scan paper ballot systems.
South Florida's decision to discard its futuristic, ATM-like touch-screen voting machines reflects a nationwide trend, with paper ballots now the dominant U.S. voting method.
With some exceptions, the switch took place smoothly Tuesday -- perhaps benefiting from what was expected to be low turnout once all the votes were tallied.
November's presidential election — where high turnout could reach historic levels -- will be the true test.
''So far, so good,'' Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess said a few hours into Tuesday's voting.
The biggest complaints: some ballots not being properly fed into the scanning machines at Broward precincts, and voters leaving unaware that additional voting questions were listed on the back side of their ballot.
Both issues, while problematic, seemed to have affected only a small minority of votes cast. The choices before voters included school board members, county commissioners, state legislators and other positions.
Emily Cardenas, press secretary for the Children's Trust Campaign in Miami-Dade, ripped county elections officials for doing a poor job of making sure voters filled out both sides of their ballot.
Read the full story at MiamiHerald.com.
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