Reno, McBride in Close Fla. Race (Reno Might Pull An Algore Over The Same Counties)

AP via Yahoo! News ^ | September 11, 2002 | ROBERT TANNER

[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.

[gridlock]

Anybody who thinks these "voting problems" in Florida are real probably also believes that all of those people spontaneously ran in front of TV cameras to complain about the butterfly ballot last time around.

That was a set-up. This is a set-up.

Jeb just better win this thing by enough that the Demoncrats can't possible steal it. If he's up by 5, he needs to be up by 10. If he's up by 10, he needs to be up by 20. He needs to keep his foot on the neck of the Demoncrats, because however many votes he is up on election day, they will try to steal that many votes plus one to win.

[Thebaddog]

No poop.

[gridlock]

...will she gain 50 lbs. and grow a beard?

She probably should not gain that much wieght, for health reasons. The beard should be no problem, though.

[Matchett-PI]

"..this whole fiasco is a set-up. Janet Reno herself "had trouble" voting in the morning. Clearly Sasquatch knew she was going to lose at the polls, and all of these "problems" are just her attempt to throw up enough smoke that she can steal the election. Not even the Floriduh election workers can be stupid enough to screw this up for a second time in a row. Clintonistas know no shame"

You got it. Here's what I posted on another thread last night:

The whole thing (from late opening polls to so called "problems understanding the new machines") was a set-up by the DemocRATS to gain more time so that they could turn out as many of their kool-aid drinker voters as possible.

Janet Reno demanded that the polls stay open until 9 PM in Dade and Broward because of the earlier "problems".

Jeb Bush was smart enough to keep the polls open until 9PM in ALL Florida counties and even had flashing information signs positioned along the interstates to inform people that they could vote until 9PM. I passed several of the signs on my way home on I-4 near Orlando.

The people that were trained to man the polls inexplicably didn't show up for work 'for several hours' this morning in Dade and Broward creating a big fiasco. Many pretended that they didn't understand how to work the new voting machines.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight!

And isn't it amazing that on the very day of the election, Jeb Bush's daughter (who is confined to a drug rehab facility) is discovered to have cocaine in her possession. Not enough to cause her to be arrested, mind you, but just enough to create a big "news story" --- TODAY. Of course it was a TOTAL coincidence.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

When I heard that story this morning, my FIRST thought was that some DemocRAT kool-aid drinker / operative who works in that facility planted it on her --- just in time for it to hit the news as the polls were opening.

We're dealing with low-life Marxist/DemocRAT snakes who are capable of just about ANYTHING in order to obtain power and control and keep their fingers in the money till.

What they pulled today in Florida (and elsewhere) is just the tip of the iceberg of what they'll try this November. They're going to pull out all the stops and we had better be ready for them.

77 posted on 9/11/02 12:54 AM Eastern by Matchett-PI http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/748120/posts

[RightWingConspirator]

Wonder how many ballot boxes the Rhino's supporters will be able to stuff before the counting resumes on Wednesday?

[Lancey Howard]

I love that top picture of Gore with Dana Carvey.
I was a little surprised that Carvey's latest movie bombed so badly.

[Lancey Howard]

Wonder how many ballot boxes the Rhino's supporters will be able to stuff before the counting resumes on Wednesday?

Ha! Not nearly as many as the unions and the Democrat machine will be able to stuff for McBride. Look for McBride's margin to widen. I'm afraid this race is over and the unelectable scumbag we all wanted in there to face Jeb in November is toast. So now we just have to make sure this scumbag McBride gets marginalized and trounced.

Regards,
LH

[js1138]

Your argument makes no sense. This was a primary. Democrat against democrat. Reno was opposed by the clinton machine. Who are the democrats that would try to rig this primary, and why? If anything, the machine democrats know that Reno would lose, so why would they support her?

On the other hand, it's nice to see dems fighting dems. It could lower their turnout in the election. Especially if it comes down to a couple thousand votes in a tainted primary.

[BOBTHENAILER]

"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.

Say it ain't so, MO. RATs disenfranchising RATs.

"Let every other vote count", says Janet Reno.

[Howlin]

Dare I even ask which precincts were involved?

[Green]

Take a wild guess.

[Green]

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Wednesday, September 11, 2002 </MCC DATE> Last modified at 2:23 a.m. on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 Results delayed by voting chaos</MCC HEAD> Bush: Bungles shameful after overhaul costs </MCC SUBHEAD>   See also: McBride leads amid vote woes For complete campaign coverage visit our Election 2002 site </MCC LINK> By Binyamin Appelbaum and Rachel Davis </MCC BYLINE1> Times-Union staff writers </MCC BYLINE2> Election officials across the state scrambled to keep precincts open until 9 p.m. yesterday, delaying vote tallies in an attempt to salvage the integrity of another Florida election jeopardized by equipment failures and poorly trained poll workers. Gov. Jeb Bush ordered the two-hour extension shortly after 2 p.m. in response to a petition from Secretary of State Jim Smith, the state's top election official. Smith cited problems in precincts from Miami to Jacksonville, including a polling station at Springfield's Mary Singleton Senior Center on First Street where voting did not begin until 8:20 a.m. because workers didn't realize they were supposed to turn on the machines. Bush, who said he extended the election ''out of fairness," had sharp words for elections officials statewide. "It's shameful," the governor said. "The state put up money -- significant sums of money -- for training, for machines. ... There's no excuse for not having precinct workers in a precinct for voting, no excuse for not turning on the machines.'' Duval County could not locate the voting equipment, ballots and results for the last of its 285 precincts. Police and election officials said the precinct clerk could not be located at her home, and nothing was found at other government offices. They were checking accident reports because the clerk is considered reliable. The elections office shut down its counting operation until 9 a.m. Wednesday. They hoped to have found the results by then, and canvass an estimated 500 provisional ballots. They anticipated little impact on county election results. They were uncertain early Wednesday what would be done if the results were not located. John Stafford, supervisor of elections for Duval County, said staff would be replaced at precincts where particular problems were reported. "We had some clerks not following directions and we're eliminating these people," Stafford said. "You can't prevent what's happened but you can make a change." Florida changed its voting laws after the 2000 presidential election, forcing most counties to purchase new voting equipment. Yesterday's primary was the first large-scale test of that equipment. While most voters cast ballots without incident, problems began cropping up statewide promptly at 7 a.m., when precincts were supposed to open. The widespread problems were different from those experienced in 2000. But once again, despite two years of preparation and plenty of notice, Florida bumbled its way through the most basic of democratic processes. And once again, residents were left fuming while the nation watched and shook its head. "We're still at square one," said Carlton Howard, who was turned away from his Miami-Dade precinct three times before it opened. "If they took out something that wasn't working, why did they put in something that works even worse?" Broward County saw the worst of the difficulties. Dozens of poll workers failed to show up yesterday morning, machines broke in many precincts, and some Democrats were given Republican ballots. In Miami-Dade, 68 poll stations were closed at 9 a.m., two hours after they were supposed to open, Mayor Alex Penelas said. One precinct did not open until 1 p.m. Election workers in Orlando said 42 percent of Orange County's ballots would have to be counted by hand because they were tearing as they were fed through optical scanning machines. Jacksonville precincts experienced similar problems on a smaller scale. At least five reported broken machines or insufficient ballots. Some people said they were turned away when they failed to show proper identification or attempted to carry non-partisan materials into the polls. And a few precincts distributed the wrong ballots to some voters. "The names [on the ballot] were slightly familiar, but I didn't find most of the people I was looking for," said Stephen Bowen, among those who brought ballot problems at East Pointe Baptist Church in Arlington to the attention of election officials. The accumulating problems statewide led Bush to issue his executive order. Word of the extended hours, however, reached precincts in patchwork fashion or not at all. Workers at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on Hendricks Avenue were notified of the extended hours by the Times-Union. Other precincts received calls from familywatching news reports. The instructions bemused many poll workers. Most arrived at 6 a.m. yesterday to set up equipment and the majority encountered no problems during the day. By evening, they were tired of standing and wondering whether the governor was planning to pay for dinner. Nonetheless, only a few precincts statewide reportedly closed early. Most were in South Florida but one Jacksonville precinct, Darnell-Cookman, was among them. Voters generally welcomed the extended hours. Those voting in Jacksonville between 7 and 9 p.m. said they were taking advantage of the added time because they got caught up in other things or simply made a late decision to participate. "I was working in Georgia and I had hoped I would get a chance," said Cole Strickland, who walked into his precinct at 7:01 p.m. The general happiness late in the day contrasted with angry reactions among voters subjected to various problems earlier yesterday. Jack Anderson, whose ballot was placed in a box after a machine broke at Guardian Lutheran Church on Haley Road in Mandarin, said he was struggling with deja vu. "I didn't know whether my vote was counted in 2000, and I don't know whether or not my vote was counted today," he said. Also yesterday, a half-dozen disabled residents of Duval County gathered outside the Supervisor of Elections Office to protest the lack of audio balloting machines for visually impaired voters. Elections Office senior official Robert Phillips said the machines are on hand, and should be certified in time for the general election in November. Times-Union staff writer David DeCamp contributed to this report. Material from The Associated Press was included in this report. Staff writer Binyamin Appelbaum can be reached at (904) 278-9431 or bappelbaumjacksonville.com. Staff writer Rachel Davis can be reached at (904) 359-4614 or rdavisjacksonville.com. </MCC STORY> Search Tips - Use + to require word, - to omit. Enter words describing a concept   or keywords. Story Archives News | Marketplace | Learning Center | Entertainment Jack's Cafe | Community | Home Metro | Neighbors | Opinion | Obituaries | Business Daily Special | Sports | Weather | Voices | Wire About us | E-mail staff | How to advertise This site, and all its content, © The Florida Times-Union

[OXENinFLA]

Why did I move to Freekville (Jacksonville)?

[Green]

I'm sitting here wondering what on earth happened to that woman who disappeared and the ballots no where to be found.

[Freedom2specul8]

Great pic of gore lieberman..

[The Person]

TV NEWS:

http://www.wfor.com/elections/race100.htm

http://www.baynews9.com/NewsStory.cfm?storyid=5342

OFFICIAL:

http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/

[ZULU]

GREAT NEWS!!

A bitter in-party fight is just what Jeb needs to solidify his vistory. I hope the DemonRATS tear each other apart over this!!

[callisto]

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.

Putting the "duh" back in Floriduh.

[Mo1]

Take a wild guess.

LOL .. Are you serious .. LOL

[Green]

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County-by-county voting problems • Latest results Associated Press BAY COUNTY - Minor ballot jams in optical scanners after ballots were read. Some machines delivered to the wrong polling places but no votes were lost. BROWARD COUNTY - Dozens of poll workers didn't show up. Polls opened late in at least six cities. A Justice Department observer took names of people who left one precinct without voting. Democrats were given Republican ballots, which have no primary in the governor's race. Elderly voters waited more than three hours to vote in suburban Miramar. A Hollywood Democrat left without voting after a two-hour wait when new touchscreen machines weren't running. Less than a full complement of machines was working in many precincts. County Commission Chairwoman Lori Parrish, a critic of elections supervisor Miriam Oliphant, called Secretary of State Jim Smith asking him Tuesday morning to call out the National Guard. Smith called it "an overreaction" but later asked the governor for a two-hour extension in voting hours. Some poll stations closed early because they were not told to stay open later. In Hollywood, workers at one precinct held the door shut and cursed at voters. DUVAL COUNTY - County officials sued for a 90-minute voting extension in a precinct at a senior center near downtown Jacksonville, a campaign stop for Janet Reno last Friday. It opened 90 minutes late because poll workers didn't realize they were supposed to turn on machines themselves. Dozens of voters left without casting ballots. County elections supervisor John Stafford called the situation "unfortunate." A precinct in a predominantly black Jacksonville neighborhood distributed Democratic primary ballots to all voters for the first 25 minutes. At least one Republican left without voting. U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, a black Democrat, tried to call the elections office to report problems but couldn't get through. Ballots jammed in optical-scanning machines due to rough tears at perforated lines. The problem was solved early. A handful of protesters picketed at election headquarters over the lack of voting machines for visually impaired voters. ESCAMBIA COUNTY - People assigned to new precincts in redistricting went to their old ones. People who moved went to the wrong precincts. HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY - Elections supervisor Pam Iorio calls the Gov. Jeb Bush's decision to keep precincts open an extra two hours "a big mistake" because she had no uniform way to notify all 353 precincts. LEE COUNTY - Fort Myers voters said they were turned away for not showing a picture identification, which is not required. MIAMI-DADE COUNTY - Janet Reno sued to extend poll hours by two hours in Broward, Duval, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. More than 100 voters were turned away when machines were off-line for about five hours in a precinct targeted by Reno in Miami's predominantly black Liberty City neighborhood. Some machines were inoperable at 36 precincts at 2 p.m. Machines reset themselves in another Liberty City precinct, routing voters back to the starting screen. Voting machines were activated late in precincts across the county ranging from affluent to poor black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Four of nine election workers did not show up at a Coral Gables precinct where the doors were not opened for workers to set up until 7 a.m. and the machines were not all running until 8:20 a.m. Voters say they were denied provisional ballots. In predominantly black Carol City north of Miami, poll workers demonstrated how to use machines by marking "yes" on a measure that would repeal the county's gay rights ordinance. Elections headquarters had trouble reaching precincts by telephone. "We expected problems, but not to this magnitude," said Gisela Salas, the assistant supervisor of elections. OKALOOSA COUNTY - Republican voters, including many Air Force retirees, were upset by redistricting when they realized they had been moved from a contested congressional district to one with no race. New poll workers didn't realize a metal bar had to be removed from a slot on optical scanners before ballots could be entered. The problem was quickly solved. A battery died on one machine and was replaced. ORANGE COUNTY - Election officials plan to recount 42 percent of precincts. Flaws on two of 64 different ballot cards used in 105 precincts require hand counting because tears made them unreadable on optical scanning machines. PALM BEACH COUNTY - At least one voter left without casting ballots, saying she had trouble with new ATM-style voting machines. Some precincts reported problems with cards activator units used to imprint voters' precinct information. Backup units worked. Some poll workers didn't show up. About 115 poll workers quit Sunday. Workers in one Boca Raton precinct wanted to go home at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., so they turned the voting machines off. They couldn't be turned back on and the remaining voters had to use paper ballots. PASCO COUNTY - Precinct opened a half-hour late when custodian arrived late to unlock building. SARASOTA COUNTY - Precinct opened a half-hour late because of a printer problem. UNION COUNTY - Nearly 2,700 ballots will be counted by hand after the optical-scan system that tallied ballots marked with special pens showed that every vote cast was for a Republican candidate. Results from local races were counted Tuesday night; workers will begin counting votes cast in statewide races Wednesday morning. VOLUSIA COUNTY - A redrawn precinct forced some rural residents near Deltona to vote more than 20 miles from home. Two Oak Hill district races were incorrectly numbered on sample ballots published in newspapers and online.

Check back for streaming video of the 2002 election season -- from debates and candidate press conferences to political TV ads.

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