Posted on 10/31/2004 1:44:26 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Lida Rodríguez-Taseff, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Commission and former president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Miami, ably and clearly explains the intricacies and background of Florida's election process -- the good, the bad and the ugly parts.
Q: When we spoke about three weeks ago you were feeling pretty optimistic about the Nov. 2 election in Florida. Do you still feel the same?
A: I'm a little more pessimistic after seeing the problems cropping up in the early voting. The long waiting lines, the length of the ballot and the shortage of poll workers and voting machines could be the symptoms of bigger problems on Election Day. The issue is capacity.
Q: How so?
A: Well, for example, there are 6,466 touch-screen voting machines in Miami-Dade County. By the election department's calculations that's one machine for every 108 voters.
The department further calculates that it will take seven minutes for the average voter to go through the entire voting process -- showing ID, registering, making ballot selections and casting a vote. But this ignores the fact that in some precincts, particularly those with higher black voter participation, the 2002 election showed that it took these voters longer to fill out the ballots.
In part this is an issue of voters not being well versed with ballot issues, not accustomed to the electronic machines or less educated overall. It's also a fact that some poll workers weren't adequately trained. In 2002 in Miami-Dade, the error rate in black precincts was higher than the overall average.
Some voters didn't understand that they had to hit the red button to record their vote. Even worse, poll workers did not know that, according to Florida law, they had to push the red button if the voter didn't. They violated Florida law. Consequently a lot of ballots were canceled.
It's scary to think that, because these problems may not have been adequately resolved since 2002, we could again have a proportionately biased election process.
Q: Could this have been prevented?
A: I think so. Miami-Dade election officials were warned about the risks in 2003. The coalition wanted them to audit the 2002 voting tapes to determine where the problems were in precincts and respond with specific training and other remedies, such as putting more machines in black-voter precincts to ensure adequate capacity so that no voter is turned away. They didn't do the audit.
But in spite of this, I still can say that I believe Miami-Dade is better prepared for this election than Broward County.
Q: You predicted three weeks ago that a presidential recount, the thing that's on everyone's mind again this year, may not be necessary this time. Why?
A: Because historically, incumbent presidencies either win or lose in big numbers. I could be wrong, of course.
But if it's not close in some ways that's a pity. I mean, if there is no need for a recount of the presidential vote this year then the strong focus since 2000 on scrutinizing the entire voting process may be forgotten -- or at least become far less important to the public and the media. That would be unfortunate because there should be an emphasis on scrutinizing every election for accuracy and fairness.
Q: Did you vote early or by absentee ballot this year?
A: No. I will vote in my precinct on one of the touch-screen machines on Nov. 2.
Herald Editorial Board member Kathleen Krog prepared this report.
Where's the time machine. Can I just wake up on November 3rd with G.W. with about 320 electoral votes please?
The whole Florida situation has me absolutely baffled. They have 2 weeks worth of early voting -- plus THOUSANDS of absentee ballots. And still there are news reports of chaos at the polls (long lines, confusion, etc...).
How would Floridians cope if they voted for ONE DAY, like most of the other states in the union?
Why is it so difficult down there?
Is voting the special olympics down there? What is their malfunction? Well they can thank Al Gore for making them look eternally stupid.
It's called LIBERALS claiming disenfranchisement when there is no evidence of it in order to get out their base.
Because Florida has a disproportionate number of elderly and minority voters.
The elderly move slower and the minorities (supposedly) have lower educational levels - thus both groups take longer in the booth.
It boils down to illiterate voters.
Which is okay because all they need is some Dim telling them which one to check, or punch, or touch if they are using touch screen (remember, put your finger on the box next to the symbol that looks like this! D).
Yes and that isn't participating in government. That's being willing dupes - cogs in the socialist machine.
Also, Florida is a "make law by constitutional amendment" state. Our ballot is 13 pages long, and you can't understand a word of it. It took me, a politically aware person and very fast reader, at least 7 minutes to wade through.
I've never seen anything like it. People down here have discovered that if you want something done, put it in the constitution, and nobody can do anything about it. We have had everything from pigs to smoking to classroom sizes to bullet trains stuck in there. It's ridiculous.
This year one of the amendments is REMOVING the bullet train amendment, because its billions of dollars and we can't afford it.
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