Senate will trade early primary for new voting machines

The Florida Senate has cooked up a deal for the Florida House: You go along with the proposal by Gov. Charlie Crist to replace touchscreen machines in 15 Florida counties, and we'll go along with your push to move up the date of the 2008 presidential primary.

Sen. Lee Constantine has drawn up an amendment to be considered this afternoon in the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee that would move the date of the presidential primary to the last Tuesday in January _ a move that would put Florida ahead of other large states that recently moved their primary dates to early February.

Under the Senate proposal, the state would spend $27.8 million and purchase optical scan machines on behalf of the 15 counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The state would also purchase so-called "ballot on demand" equipment to use in early voting in 29 counties. Meanwhile, the House Economic Expansion and Infrastructure Council is expected to debate a voting machine bill at its meeting this morning.