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.

[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.