The secretary of state's office has been a very difficult agency to work with the past couple of years. This gives the governor an opportunity to really step forward and select someone who has expertise in the area of elections.

Florida's 2000 felon purge program resulted in over 50,000 legal voters being disenfranchised. When asked for assurances that the [2004 felon list] was 90 percent accurate -- the minimum level local supervisors of elections requested for such a list -- we were told that it was better than the 2000 list, with no data to support its accuracy.

I can't read anybody's minds, but up to this point in history no vendor has ever refused to sell to a willing jurisdiction who wants to purchase equipment. Ironically after Leon County conducted tests that revealed vulnerabilities to their e-voting systems, then nobody would sell to us.

An honest man with integrity is probably not the person you want to bet on in the American political system.

If you make a system that can be manipulated, unfortunately in our current political environment, it probably will be. Why take that chance?

Florida is one example of how partisan politics interfere with having folks' votes being counted accurately. Americans have taken elections for granted for far too long.