According to Washington Dispatch, it's just a matter of time before someone steps forward to count the paper ballots from Florida's optical scanning machines:
"After the contested ballot battle in the 2000 presidential election, many groups and news organizations requested access to Florida's ballots under the Sunshine Law. The law allows public access to ballots making a manual, public recount possible.
While much talk has been generated regarding the use of electronic voting machines and possible fraud or error in the November 2nd election, no group has taken the lead to publicly inspect the ballots. While touch screen voting machines leave no paper trail, the optical scan machines do make use of paper ballots and therefore can be inspected easily by those willing to take the time to do so.
Note that the Florida counties with optical scan voting machines showed the largest discrepancies with voter turnout. Expected voter turnout among Republicans increased by 128.45% in counties using optical scan voting machines while Democrats showed a -21% loss.
Anyone with the time to do so can send the following request to the Florida Secretary of State and the appropriate county election official:
Dear ____________,
Pursuant to the Public Records Act, ? 119.07(1)(a) and (c) of the Florida Statutes, __________ hereby requests access to all Florida ballots cast during the November 2, 2004 presidential election.
Please contact me at as soon as possible to make arrangements for the inspection of ballots.
Sincerely,
___________________
Florida's Sunshine Law is an effective tool in establishing open government and transparency in all civil affairs. If any doubts exist as to the accuracy of Florida's 2004 election results, many counties do have a paper trail to allow for a manual audit by any interested party.
While no groups or individuals have announced any such undertaking, it can be assumed that it is just a matter of time before an organized public recount takes place.
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