Posted on 03/09/2004 12:09:50 AM PST by kattracks
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Suspended Broward Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant has been charged with 55 counts of violating election laws. Oliphant, already facing a Senate trial for her conduct in office, is accused of not opening polls on time and not keeping them open late enough during the September 2002 primary.The Florida Elections Commission levied the charges against Oliphant at its Feb. 19 meeting. If found guilty, Oliphant faces a fine of up to $55,000.
She has 30 days to respond and can choose to appear in administrative court or in front of the Elections Commission.
Oliphant, a Democrat, was suspended Nov. 20 without pay by Gov. Jeb Bush, who removed her for "gross carelessness." Bush appointed retired elementary school principal Brenda Snipes to replace Oliphant.
Oliphant, who took office after the 2000 presidential election meltdown, came under scrutiny following 2002's botched gubernatorial primary. Voters received bad ballots and inaccurate registration information; some polls opened late and others closed early; thousands of votes were not counted until a week after the election.
The 2002 election - the first test of touch-screen election equipment - was so chaotic in Broward and Miami-Dade counties that Bush ordered polls across Florida to stay open an additional two hours, until 9 p.m.
The commission found that 24 Broward precincts opened late; 13 because they didn't have the proper materials and the rest because they didn't have enough poll workers. Another 32 polls closed before the 9 p.m. deadline.
Two other agencies had exonerated her for potential criminal and ethical violations: the Florida Ethics Commission and the Broward State Attorney's Office.
Oliphant's attorney, Henry Hunter of Tallahassee, said he questions the timing of the commission's charges. Hunter, also representing Oliphant in her Senate suspension trial, said other counties had experienced similar problems at the polls during the 2002 primary.
"There were problems everywhere, particularly in Dade County," Hunter said. "The problems she incurred are not different. She's not the only supervisor of elections to have precincts open late and close early."
It's doable, with only upwards of 50% of elligible voter voting in an election.
We know that the Democrats are going to use their knock and drag technique again. The troll through minority neighborhoods to drive people to the polls and they don't take no for an answer (they will stop by the same home 3 times on election day and that to me smells of intimidation).
Driving people to the poll and telling them to punch "the second hole" may have gotten some manipulated voters to vote for Buchanan. I still subscribe to the theory that the "dimpled" chads came from stacking punched ballots together and punching "votes" for Gore.
I've seen Democrat "knock and drag" turn a local election (Houston's lousy mayor, Lee P. Brown, got to serve his final term because of DNC effort in the local runoff election). Maybe we need to remind the locals, who all now curse Brown's name, of just who we have to thank for his final 2 years trashing Houston's budget.
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