Vote-Less Ballots Worry Broward Democrats

TBO ^ | Mar 13, 2004 | AP

[NautiNurse]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - There weren't many choices to make in Broward County elections last week, but 169 ballots without votes in the Democratic presidential primary are causing some worries.

Nearly half of the ballots without primary votes were in precincts with large elderly populations. Democratic Party leaders are concerned it's a sign of trouble for November.

At the rate seen in Tuesday's primary, about 4,000 ballots would go without votes in the general election in a Democratic stronghold beset by election problems since the 2000 presidential election.

"That's a frightening statistic," Mitch Ceasar, chairman of the county's Democratic Party. "We have a large number of folks who are elderly and not comfortable with these machines."

Senior-only communities accounted for four of the top five polling locations with the heaviest undervoting, according to a representative sampling by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. While the countywide average undervote was about 1 percent, the rate in retirement community precincts ranged from 2.9 percent to 5.7 percent.

"That's too many undervotes," said Amadeo "Trinchi" Trinchitella, an 87-year-old Deerfield Beach city commissioner who represents the sprawling retirement community of Century Village East. "Some of our people are elderly, sick, whatever. But it doesn't matter. We have a right to vote, and I think there should be every safeguard."

[NautiNurse]

Well, they can't blame it on pregnant, dimpled, hanging chads this time. Watch the Dems offer to "assist" the elders with their vote selections.

[Tax Government]

There should be a law preventing inDuhviduals from assisting others to cast a vote. Exceptions would require an absentee ballot. No?

[proxy_user]

Hmmmm...maybe 169 people didn't like any of the candidates?

[NautiNurse]

"We have a large number of folks who are elderly and not comfortable with these machines."

I am betting the farm it's the same ones that voted for Buchanan. You can lead a horse to the water...but if it goes down his windpipe, he's gonna choke.

[JackRyanCIA]

I think they were just making a statement..."we don't like any of you yokels"

[NautiNurse]

maybe 169 people didn't like any of the candidates?

LOL--it's hard for me to imagine making the effort to get to the polls, then willfully skipping the vote. Heck, my precinct had votes for each and every 'Rat--including Gephardt.

[ArmstedFragg]

Thank God for the new machines. Otherwise, there might have been a repeat of that whole undervote problem. But I guess we've proved now that it was all the fault of that flawed punch card system those mean Republicans made us use.

What?

Oh.

Never Mind.

[John Jorsett]

So what's next, some kind of "Weekend at Bernie's" deal where the poll workers prop these people up and punch the screen with their lifeless fingers? At some point you have to acknowledge that you've done everything you can to make it possible to vote and if people are too enfeebled or deranged to do it, that's the breaks. If the machines are too difficult, request an absentee ballot and have someone read it to you and mark down your choices for you if it comes to that.

[whereasandsoforth]

That county sure spends a lot of time worrying about something that never crossed their minds before 2000.

I take it that as long as election go their way they could care less about the elderly or anyone else for that matter.

[Michael_S]

They should be worried. The voters in the democrapic base have finally reached the pinnacle of liberal capabilities.

They are to damned stupid to vote.

[ArmstedFragg]

If the machines are too difficult, request an absentee ballot and have someone read it to you and mark down your choices for you if it comes to that.

What? You mean you're proposing taking responsibility for oneself as the solution?

Why that's downright un.... un.... unDemocratic!

[NautiNurse]

request an absentee ballot and have someone read it to you and mark down your choices for you

In exchange, they must surrender their driver's license forever. I would agree to that. They never would.

[John Jorsett]

it's hard for me to imagine making the effort to get to the polls, then willfully skipping the vote.

I actually skipped a few races for judges. Candidates have taken to refusing to answer questions in these races and it's gotten increasing difficult to know where they stand. You'd think the challengers at least would let their positions be known, but even they seem to have clammed up.

[swany]

Just how hard would it be to add "None of the Above" to every race on every ballot in every election.

Maybe that would put to rest "undervote" problem by finally, once and for all, determining the actual intent of the voter.

[NautiNurse]

We have the same problem over here. Hard to discern a judge's position via mental telepathy by reading his name on the ballot. However, the 'Rat presidential candidates have been in our faces for a year already.

[GungaLaGunga]

"Broward Democrat" = Moron

[NautiNurse]

add "None of the Above" to every race on every ballot in every election

That's a grand idea!

[zeugma]

The governemnt is scared to death of the NOTA vote option. Don't expect to see it any time soon. I too would like to see it on every ballot and in every race, with a provision that if any election was won by NOTA, then the candidates on the ballot would be ineligable from running in the 'runoff'.

[ArmstedFragg]

now they are just "working out the kinks" before this year.

What would be funny... if it wasn't so irritating... is that every time they come up with one of these scams they get so excited about their inventiveness that they screw up the execution.

This time it was letting Kerry talk about the "problem" several days before planting this article announcing the discovery of the problem. They manage to blow the whistle on themselves every time.

If it wasn't for inept, these guys wouldn't have any "ept" at all.

[Vigilanteman]

I used to skip judge contests (mostly uncontested contests) for the same reason. Then I started writing in "Judge Roy Bean."

We could use a few more like him. As corrupt as he was, at least the criminals got their due.

[bayourod]

Yes exactly. They were sending a message. Maybe lots of different messages. Here is one suggestions:

"They told us at the retirement home that if we didn't get on the bus and come vote that we wouldn't get ice cream for a week.

[JackRyanCIA]

LOL, dirty rotten liberals.

[I still care]

They are just setting up a scenerio so that Kerry will have an excuse to put Florida though hell again this year.

[nmh]

It's becoming painfully clear that only the dumbest of dumb will vote for Deomncrats.

[NautiNurse]

Kerry can't do a damn thing if Democrats don't/can't/won't press a button or screen, or pop out a flipping chad. The primary actually is a blessing in this respect. It demonstrates the caliber of the Democratic party.

pass the popcorn...it's gonna be a fun show.

[mware]

Does this mean they are going to ASSUME what the voters meant, like they did in 2000?

[NautiNurse]

Well, uhhh...yep...unless someone calls them on their criminal acts.

[I still care]

Oh, they'll figure out something to give us heartburn. Isn't it amazing that they are so dependent for votes are people that seem too clueless to know how to push a button.

In an intelligent world, people would connect those dots, but no, the press just spews out that Republicans must be "dienfranchising" "disabled, elderly, and minority" voters.

[Katya]

I am a registered democrat and always vote in their primaries. It give me the opportunity to vote out the true losers and have some fun.
I often leave some or many categories empty..I guess in Florida that would make me old.

[oldironsides]

Democrats did use absentee ballots in 2000. They used them in New Jersey and New York and then went to the polls in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach and voted again. That little tidbit of info never reached the media. The numbers were enough to tip the election. They wanted to make sure it counted.

[ArmstedFragg]

They wanted to make sure it counted.

....and counted....and counted.

Do you suppose some sub-set of that group with a sense of morality (okay, an admitedly small one), recognizing that they'd already voted in the national races, just cast ballots in the local races? That would produce.... gasp!... an undervote.

[ApplegateRanch]

For crying out loud, give us a paper ballot, a marker, and a plce to put an "X", and quit trying to be so "modern!

Any one who complains it is beneath them to do so because it is "too old fashioned" or "too difficult", can stay home and forfeit their ballot.

BEST SOLUTION: Give the voter the choice of using which ever they are most comfortable with: electronic, or paper.

[ApplegateRanch]

Do you suppose some sub-set of that group with a sense of morality (okay, an admitedly small one), recognizing that they'd already voted in the national races, just cast ballots in the local races?

We resented highly the fact that while owning comperable-value property in two states, and splitting our time between, we could only vote in one. BOTH would typically have measures affecting our state & local taxes, but there was no provision to be taxed AND represented in both.

Being possessed of a sense of morality, we compromised, and kept ONE of us registered in each state. Not the best solution, but the best legally available.

And, NO; neither state was Florida.

[Hank Rearden]

Just how hard would it be to add "None of the Above" to every race on every ballot in every election.

It's not hard. It's revolutionary.

And that's why it'll never happen until we toss Big Stupid Government out the window.

[sweetliberty]

Sounds like a dry run to me....to determine how many blank ballots they will have to play with come the general election. Of course, we know that all those people would vote for the democRAT. < /sarcasm >

[ladyinred]

They can rig these machines even easier than their butterfly ballot. This is just smoke and mirrors folks.

[xm177e2]

Well, they can't blame it on pregnant, dimpled, hanging chads this time.

They can't blame it on Republicans either; this was a DEMOCRATIC primary.

[sweetliberty]

"They are to damned stupid to vote."

.