Download Magazine - Levin College of Law - University of Florida

AP PHOTO/J.PAT CARTEREarly voters castelectronic ballots indowntown Miamiduring the 2004presidential election.Florida Administrative Code werewritten using ballots cast in the 2000election as examples to assist in identifyingcommon mismarking problems,resulting in clear guidelines to interpretvirtually any mark on a ballot as avalid or invalid vote.Lastly, the act removed voterecounts from the discretion of thecounty canvassing boards and no longerallows a candidate to protest votesin specific counties. As the law standsnow, an automatic statewide machinerecount is triggered if unofficial returnsfor presidential elections indicatea margin of victory less than one-halfof 1 percent of the vote. If the machinerecount shows a difference of less thanone-quarter of 1 percent in the marginof victory, a statewide manual recountmust take place of both under- andovervotes, unless the combined totalof those ballots is less than the numberof votes necessary to change the outcomeof the election.“The new standards and votingsystem make the election moreuniform and provide tangible evidencefor review if a recount does arise. So,Florida is much better off than we werein 2000 or even 2004,” said Mills.“But, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect.”This year, Florida’s election wasa fairly uneventful mega-event. Despitelong waits to vote at somepolling places and occasional malfunctioningmachines, the votesof more than 8 million Floridianswere cast and counted — with littlepost-election drama. If a recounthad been necessary, new laws are inplace to standardize the process thatwould, hopefully, quarantine the controversywithin the bounds of Florida’scourts.Florida has come a long way sinceits 2000 presidential election, andone might now offer it as a model ofhow to run a smooth election in a big,hotly-contested swing state … As longas the margins aren’t razor-thin. ■Mills is now serving as counselon a legal team representingFairDistrictsFlorida.org that includesCGR staff attorney Tim McLendon.The organization is the sponsor ofa constitutional amendment to setstandards the Legislature must use whenredrawing district boundaries.The title and summary of theamendment, which was argued beforethe Florida Supreme Court Nov. 6 asCase No. SC08-1149, reads:STANDARDS FOR LEGISLATURE TOFOLLOW IN CONGRESSIONALREDISTRICTINGCongressional districts or districtingplans may not be drawn to favor ordisfavor an incumbent or politicalparty. Districts shall not be drawn todeny racial or language minoritiesthe equal opportunity to participatein the political process and electrepresentatives of their choice. Districtsmust be contiguous. Unless otherwiserequired, districts must be compact,as equal in population as feasible,and where feasible must make use ofexisting city, county and geographicalboundaries.The primary goal of the amendment —if the Supreme Court approves it as a ballotmeasure for a 2010 general election — isto establish nonpartisan reapportionmentstandards by which districts would bedrawn. These standards would seek toassure continuity in redistricting so thatboundaries are contiguous and compact,preventing district lines from being drawnin such a way that cherry-picks andpatches together disparate areas thatreliably vote one way or the other.When districts are drawn to embracecontiguous communities, they include abroader range of constituencies and are notstrictly split by racial or partisan lines. Thetheory is that legislators and congressmenelected to office from such districts wouldbe less partisan and more balanced intheir views, resulting in an approach togovernment that is less divisive and morerepresentative, Mills said.“I think there are people of goodwill on both sides of the aisle whoreally want to see the process be astransparent and fair as possible,”said Stephen N. Zack (JD 71), apartner in the Miami firm Boies,Schiller & Flexner,which also representsFairDistrictsFlorida.org.“Obviously, there are otherswho just want to win, andthat is not the standard bywhich we should want tohave an election.”FALL 2008 21