During the campaign Charlie occasionally would call me to discuss the issues. Charlie has an unusual quality for a politician – he actually listens to people. I told Charlie flat out that guaranteeing a paper trail would be a bold and unexpected position for a Republican candidate for Governor. In fact, I spoke with Jim Davis about it too. I knew from my own polling that it was an issue South Florida voters cared about deeply; they were still angry about the 2000 election and, by a great majority, believed the problems had not been solved. Almost from the beginning, Crist was favorably inclined, but he had to learn more about it and find his own footing. Of course, I never expected he would actually support a paper trail, let alone actually champion it.
Ironically, Crist had been peripherally involved in the issue; as state Attorney-General his lawyers represented the Governor and the Secretary of State in their battle against me. We'd actually discussed that, and I was never under any illusion that Charlie was going to take a position other than supportive of Governor Bush.
Guaranteeing a paper trail became an issue in the Gubernatorial election campaign. During a debate on his MSNBC show, Hardbal, Chris Matthews asked both candidates where they stood and both men offered positive responses. People expected that from the Democrat but were very surprised when the Republican clearly supported a position completely opposite that of Jeb Bush. During the debate Charlie had said a few things that were confusing about how a paper trail would operate so afterwards I talked to him about it. Throughout the remainder of the campaign we must have had a dozen conversations about that and other issues. We also talked about the importation of prescription drugs from Canada, which was also a significant issue for my constituents. I didn't believe there was anything inappropriate about me speaking to the Republican candidate. Florida was fortunate to have two qualified people running for Governor and I would be working with the winner regardless of party affiliation.
In politics you learn there are few people you can ultimately trust. After the election and Charlie's victory our discussions about a paper trail became very specific. On several occasions I told him his popularity would go sky high in democratic areas if he would do it. Even though Governor Crist is a Republican and we certainly have our differences of opinion, Charlie is someone I trust. We had a long history together, and we'd developed that trust when neither one of us needed the other and we weren't competitors. So it was real. Charlie Crist, incidentally, is probably the most gracious and humble man ever to serve as a state Governor!
As an added impetus, in the November, 2006 election to replace Katherine Harris as Sarasota's Representative, the Republican won by 368 votes – but supposedly more than 18,000 people went to the polls, voted in other races and amazingly no vote was recorded in the Congressional race. This was yet another example of something going dramatically wrong in a county using electronic voting machines, and there existed no paper trail to follow to figure out what had happened. Once again, disgusted Florida voters were left with an uncertain result. What a fitting legacy for Governor Jeb Bush as he left office!
One of new Governor Charlie Crist's first actions was to appoint as Secretary of State the election supervisor who had been the chief expert witness against me in my federal lawsuit. That was somewhat surprising – until Charlie called me and told me he was more committed than ever to creating a paper trail. I believed he meant it, although I wondered whether the forces of politics would allow him to actually do it. But he kept telling me he was seriously committed to it. When I told members of my staff about it they rolled their eyes and told me I was delusional. "No," I told them, "Charlie's for real. Charlie is committed to doing this."
Governor Crist and I continued to talk about it, and then one day he called to tell me, "I'm putting money in my budget to pay for a paper trail in every precinct in Florida.. His administration developed its own proposal, with our input, but it really was their work product. But the results were the same. In May, 2007, as I stood a few steps to his side, Governor Crist came from Tallahassee to the office of the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson and signed legislation that required all voting in Florida be conducted on optical scan machines that produced a paper trail – but also made a provision allowing the disabled to vote using a touch screen. In some ways, that provided at least a semblance of closure for the 2000 elections. Before the signing ceremony Charlie gave me credit for convincing him to do it. The realization that we finally had a paper trail in Florida made me smile from ear to ear. It had been a very long battle that many people and organizations had fought alongside me. Imagine this: A Republican and a Democrat worked together to accomplish something and Florida now has a guaranteed paper trail. How very far we were from Washington, D.C.
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