Posted on 09/11/2002 4:24:06 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
MIAMI (AP) - Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Janet Reno ( news - web sites) narrowly trailed a surprisingly strong opponent Tuesday in a Florida election marred by problems with the state's new election system, while two-term New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith lost a bitter GOP primary battle to Rep. John Sununu ( news, bio, voting record). Both the closeness of the Florida race and widespread complaints at many state polling places eerily echoed Florida's 2000 election, which left the presidential race in limbo for weeks.
Early Wednesday, glitches sent police to seven precincts in Miami-Dade County to pick up electronic voting machine cartridges, so voting officials could try to determine how many ballots went uncounted.
Broward County, which was favoring Reno by a better than 2-1 margin, suspended the ballot count just before 5 a.m. with 93 percent of the votes tallied and the race too close to call. Workers planned to resume the count at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Reno's campaign warned it would consider contesting the Democratic primary results as she trailed by 2 percent of votes cast.
In New Hampshire, Smith became the first elected senator to lose a primary in a decade after angering many fellow Republicans by briefly quitting the party three years ago to run for president as an independent.
In the race for Jesse Helms's Senate seat in North Carolina, Republican Elizabeth Dole ( news - web sites) will face Democrat Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff in the Clinton administration, in a contest that figures prominently in the battle for control of the Senate.
In a third crucial race for the fall, Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone and Republican Norm Coleman easily won their primaries in Minnesota.
In Florida, Tampa lawyer Bill McBride had 589,512 votes, or 45 percent, with 94 percent of precincts reporting; Reno had 568,827, or 43 percent.
In New Hampshire, Sununu had 79,812, or 53 percent, to Smith's 66,773, or 45 percent, with 95 percent of precincts reporting.
In North Carolina, Dole got 339,748 votes, or 80 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Bowles, a Charlotte investment banker, had 272,015 votes, or 43 percent. His nearest challenger, state Rep. Dan Blue, had 178,210, or 28 percent.
Elsewhere, voters in 12 states determined fall lineups for six open governor's offices, three of the most competitive Senate seats and a few House seats that could influence control of Congress and the shape of the next two years of President Bush ( news - web sites)'s administration.
There were also races in Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin on the busiest primary day of the year. Georgia held runoffs.
By Wednesday, thousands of votes still hadn't been counted in three large South Florida counties where Reno hoped to catch up — Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, some of the same counties that figured prominently in the 2000 election dispute.
The three counties represent 29 percent of the state's registered voters, and the returns there showed Reno with a better than 2-to-1 margin. "The returns are still coming in. It looks like a long night," Reno told supporters at a hotel north of Miami Beach.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered polls statewide to stay open an additional two hours. In the first test of the state's revamped elections system, polling places opened late, and workers had problems starting up new touchscreen voting machines and running other ballots through scanning machines.
Besides the problems in Miami-Dade, Broward County officials said they couldn't find 12 cartridges that store votes from the touchscreen machines. Duval County was missing results from one precinct, while 42 percent of the paper in Orange County, in central Florida, were unable to be read.
In all, problems were reported in 14 of Florida's 67 counties.
Reno's campaign warned of the possibility of a post-election battle. "When that many people are turned away from the polls, it raises enough concerns that we're going to have to take a good, hard look at the legitimacy of the election," said campaign manager Mo Elleithee.
Reno entered the race with a wide lead in the polls, only to see it shrink to a too-close-to-call race as McBride won party endorsements and raised more cash.
State party leaders, who had hoped for an aggressive challenge to the president's brother after the 2000 presidential election crisis, said McBride would stand a better chance of defeating the governor in the fall.
Reno had angered many in Florida's Cuban community, an influential voting bloc, when as Clinton's attorney general she oversaw the federal raid two years ago that took Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives. The boy was sent back to Cuba with his father.
In other voting, former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris ( news - external web site) won the GOP primary for an open House seat in a safely Republican district.
In New Hampshire, Sununu, a three-term congressman, will face three-term Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who was unopposed.
Sununu is the son of former Gov. John H. Sununu, who was chief of staff to the former President Bush.
Smith was the first elected senator in a decade to be unseated in a primary. In 1992, Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon lost to Carol Moseley Braun, who went on to serve one term as the nation's first black woman senator.
Smith faced a backlash for briefly quitting the party in 1999 for a failed presidential run. Some critics said Sununu would do better against Shaheen; others said they couldn't forgive him for bolting the party, even though he returned a few months later.
Lew Williams, a 61-year-old retired police officer, said Sununu was the more reliable candidate. "I was disappointed when Bob left the party there, got a little wild," he said.
Reno and Bowles were not the only high-profile Clinton administration figures to seek office. Several other Clinton administration officials were seeking House seats. Andrew Cuomo, Clinton's housing secretary, dropped his Democratic bid for New York governor after polls showed him trailing badly.
The midterm elections have drawn national cash and attention, with the outcome deciding the partisan balance in Congress and influencing the debate over economic policy and foreign affairs.
With control of Congress split and held by a narrow margin, this year's elections could tip the balance either way. Democrats control the Senate by one seat; the GOP holds the House, with 222 Republicans, 211 Democrats and two independents.
Open seats for governor drew aggressive campaigns, too:
_ Tech-boom multimillionaire Craig Benson defeated two other candidates, including former Sen. Gordon Humphrey, for the GOP nomination for the New Hampshire governor's seat left open by Shaheen.
_ In Arizona, Attorney General Janet Napolitano ( news, bio, voting record), a Democrat, will face former GOP Rep. Matt Salmon in the fall race to replace two-term GOP Gov. Jane Hull.
_ In Rhode Island, former state Sen. Myrth York defeated state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse ( news, bio, voting record) for the Democratic nomination to replace Rhode Island GOP Gov. Lincoln Almond, who is leaving office because of term limits. York will face Don Carcieri, a former math teacher who became an executive in a large corporation.
In Maryland, Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Republican Rep. Robert Ehrlich ( news, bio, voting record) both won their parties' nominations. Minnesota and Vermont also will elect governors in the fall.
And in New York, GOP Gov. George Pataki will face state comptroller H. Carl McCall ( news, bio, voting record), whose contentious Democratic primary ended early with Cuomo's withdrawal.
In Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams ( news, bio, voting record) ran a write-in campaign after he was dropped from the ballot for petition irregularities. He faced Rev. Willie Wilson, also a write-in candidate, in a race likely to decide the fall winner. Results weren't expected for days.
Other House primaries included the race for a new district in Arizona, where former Clinton aide Fred DuVal and Arizona political scion Steve Udall were among seven Democratic candidates.
In Maryland, state Sen. Christopher Van Hollen ( news, bio, voting record) defeated Kennedy cousin Mark Shriver and Ira Shapiro, a top trade negotiator in the Clinton administration, for the Democratic nomination to challenge eight-term GOP Rep. Constance Morella.
In the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore ( news - web sites), election results were contested in several Florida counties and statewide amid allegations of widespread voting problems and irregularities. After 36 days of legal arguments and protests, Bush ultimately was awarded the state's electoral votes and the election.
This is what is known as Karmatic Kickback.
Broward County, which was favoring Reno by a better than 2-1 margin, suspended the ballot count just before 5 a.m. with 93 percent of the votes tallied and the race too close to call. Workers planned to resume the count at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
So don't expect any election result updates until after 9 this morning.
Reno's campaign warned it would consider contesting the Democratic primary results as she trailed by 2 percent of votes cast.
YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! This is what I have been hoping for---Janet Reno pulling an Algore and a disputed election that could drag on for weeks. BEAUTIFUL!!!
By Wednesday, thousands of votes still hadn't been counted in three large South Florida counties where Reno hoped to catch up — Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, some of the same counties that figured prominently in the 2000 election dispute.
Ah! I LOVE Karmatic Kickback!!!
Besides the problems in Miami-Dade, Broward County officials said they couldn't find 12 cartridges that store votes from the touchscreen machines.
How many votes per cartridge?
In Maryland, state Sen. Christopher Van Hollen ( news, bio, voting record) defeated Kennedy cousin Mark Shriver...
Another good piece of election news!
WTF??? Didn't anybody in Floriduh think to test the system before the election????
Because Broward County wants the publicity that comes with being the butt of election jokes like back in 2000.
So the dims could cheat easier?
Gotta love those crazy Floridian dems. Perhaps the voting booth needs to be completely done away with. Maybe a simple "stomp once for reno, twice for mcbride" would suffice.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
But you know, I live in Florida. I guess they are training to be poll workers.... :)
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