Latest Dumb Idea From Florida Senate

This is the most stupid idea to come out of Florida politics in quite sometime.

A Florida lawmaker wants voters to have a guaranteed alternative to all the candidates on future ballots: "I Choose Not to Vote."

State Sen. Michael Bennett, R-Bradenton, has introduced a bill that would require every contest on a ballot to include that as an option.

Bennett introduced the bill in the wake of the controversial District 13 congressional race, where more than 18,000 ballots were cast in Sarasota County with no candidate selected. The large number of "undervotes" prompted claims of voting machine malfunction, and Democrat Christine Jennings challenged her 369-vote loss to Republican Vern Buchanan. A U.S. House of Representatives task force is investigating the election.

There is no evidence that the undervote was caused by voter apathy. There are ugly political races across the country. Those races did not produce an 18,000 undervote.

Election Systems & Software knew their voting machines were having problems.

"It has come to our attention after a number of inquiries...that some of your screens are exhibiting slow response times...We have determined that the delayed response time is a result of a smoothing filter that was added...In some cases, the time lapse on these consistent reads is beyond the normal time a voter would expect."

ES&S handled the District 13 controversy by not disclosing their problems and put out a misleading press release.

"ES&S was not present during the election, so it would be inappropriate to speculate on the situation," spokeswoman Jill Freidman-Wilson said. "However, we have been in contact with the Supervisor of Elections who has emphasized that the voting equipment functioned well.

"The touch screen system used in Sarasota County provides unlimited opportunity for a voter to make and change selections before a ballot is cast. Therefore, according to the Supervisor of Elections, undervotes were a result of an intentional choice not to make a selection in the congressional race or unintentional omission of a selection."

There is ample evidence the machines did not work properly. There is none that 18,000 voters decided not to vote in a Congressional race. Bennett's proposal is pure wingnuttery and unneeded. Voters don't have to vote in every race on the ballot.