Posted on 09/11/2002 8:04:25 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
MIAMI (AP) - Florida's first major election since the 2000 debacle was marred by mechanical and human glitches that frustrated voters and prompted Janet Reno ( news - web sites) to consider challenging results that showed her trailing in the race for governor.
Political novice Bill McBride jumped out to an early lead over Reno in the Democratic primary when initial results were counted, but Reno remained in striking distance as votes were still being counted in South Florida counties where she held a better than 2-to-1 margin.
Despite $32 million spent to reform the voting system, Tuesday's primary was tarnished by faulty vote-counting machines, absent poll workers and exasperated voters unable to cast ballots.
Problems were reported in 14 of Florida's 67 counties, including six of the seven that were sued after the 2000 vote. The governor called it "shameful."
"It's deja vu all over again," said Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe. "Even before the polls close, we know that election reform in Florida has failed its first test."
The Democratic race between Reno and McBride remained too close to call. Broward and Orange counties suspended counting by 5 a.m., leaving Reno and McBride waiting until sometime Wednesday — and possibly longer — to learn who would face Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in November.
Early Wednesday, with 97 percent of precincts reporting, McBride had 596,472 votes, or 45 percent, compared with Reno's 577,380 votes, or 43 percent. State Sen. Daryl Jones ( news, bio, voting record) had 154,367 votes, or 12 percent.
Two months ago, polls had shown Reno leading McBride by about 25 percentage points.
"We'll see what happens," McBride said early Wednesday. "I thought it was going to be close, but I thought it would have been settled by now. I just hope this gets straightened out."
Reno had not conceded when she left a meeting with supporters at 2:30 a.m., saying only that her campaign was assessing the numbers. Campaign manager Mo Elleithee said no decision had been made on whether to contest the race. Reno was at home Wednesday morning and did not comment.
"We need to wait-and-see what the numbers look like and what the full impact of today's voting irregularities are," Elleithee said.
Republican National Chairman Marc Racicot said some problems could have been expected in the first election after such widespread changes. The responsibility for conducting elections in Florida lies with the individual elected county supervisors of elections.
Gov. Jeb Bush ordered polls statewide to stay open an additional two hours to handle unhappy voters — but some refused and closed at 7 p.m. as scheduled. At one precinct, residents said poll workers refused to reopen the doors and shouted profanities at would-be voters.
"I frankly wonder what in the hell have they been doing for two years," said Secretary of State Jim Smith, Florida's top elections official.
Smith, a former secretary of state, returned to his old job after the resignation this summer of Katherine Harris. Harris won the GOP primary Tuesday for a seat in Congress after presiding over the 2000 recount that eventually led to George W. Bush's razor-thin victory over Al Gore ( news - web sites).
The state changed voting laws and outlawed punch card ballots after the presidential election. Millions were spent and more than half of the state's voters used — or tried to use — the new touch-screen machines intended to replace punch card and butterfly ballots.
But ballots jammed in optical-scanning machines used in some counties. Poll workers didn't show up, forcing some precincts to open late into the morning. And some Democrats were given Republican ballots.
Duval County officials sued for a 90-minute voting extension in a precinct at a senior center after it opened 90 minutes late because poll workers didn't realize they were supposed to turn on machines themselves.
"It's shameful," Bush 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."
Miami-Dade County officials said electronic ballots from 31 precincts had not been processed as of early Wednesday because voting machines had not been shut down properly.
"Our community suffered a black eye on a day we expected to celebrate our democracy," Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas said.
This is a mental image that I wish you hadn't planted in my mind. SHUDDER!!!
Go back to the pencil fill method or another mechanical method and leave it be. (Intelligent voters would help, too.)
Sac
Actually Bush gave his migraine to Wayne Mann (a little political e-mail digest humor there for those of you who are on Wayne's list).
I couldn't help but think of your comment about "respecting the selection process". I wonder if Ms.Reno is now waiting to show her high respect for absentee military ballots?
...Here's my five fingers, \.!., If you need an explaination, PR me!!!
The good ole AP comes through for the RATS again.
Democrats to Blame Florida on GOP
Wed Sep 11, 5:19 PM ET
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats signaled an eagerness Wednesday to turn Florida's latest Election Day troubles into a campaign issue against Gov. Jeb Bush this fall.
At the same time, party officials hoped for a speedy end to the overtime primary battle between Democratic rivals Janet Reno ( news - web sites) and Bill McBride, and a quick display of unity behind the winner who will oppose Bush in November.
"This could not have turned out worse for Jeb Bush," Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe said of the difficulties in Tuesday's voting. "It reminds everybody about how Al Gore ( news - web sites) was robbed in the last presidential election."
"This is the governor's responsibility," he added.
Jim Dyke, a spokesman for the GOP national party, scoffed at the Democratic claims. He said Bush had pushed for new election laws, and that local officials — many of them Democrats — were responsible for overseeing elections in their own counties.
"You've got a Democratic primary, Democratic election officials and a bunch of people who think Gore won" over the governor's brother in 2000, he said. "It's delusional."
McAuliffe said he planned to travel to Florida over the weekend for a "unity event" with McBride and Reno and hoped an undisputed winner would emerge by then.
The day after the polls closed in the Democrats' gubernatorial primary, McBride led Reno narrowly with thousands of ballots yet to be counted in a half-dozen counties.
McAuliffe also pledged the party would conduct a major voter education program in Florida and elsewhere, and back it up by dispatching lawyers to numerous locations in November.
Tuesday's balloting included both mechanical difficulties and human error, an embarrassment to a state that had spent $32 million to overhaul its voting procedures after the disputed 2000 presidential election.
Gov. Bush himself called the developments "shameful."
On Tuesday, he had ordered polls statewide to stay open late. Some poll workers refused, however, and shut down at 7 p.m. as planned, barring entry to would-be voters.
Several Democratic aides said the party intends to use the Election Day difficulties to motivate key constituencies by resurrecting memories of the 2000 election in the state that gave Republicans the White House.
Most of those problems centered on claims that blacks and other core Democratic voters were disenfranchised by confusing ballots and mechanical errors.
Democrats need those voters to turn out in large numbers this fall to maximize their chances of denying Bush a second term as Florida's governor.
At the same time they sought advantage from the state's election woes, Democrats said they hoped an automatic recount law would not come into use in their gubernatorial primary. A recount is automatic if the two top vote getters are separated by less than one-half of one percent of the total number of votes cast.
In the race between McBride and Reno, that translates to between 6,000 and 7,000 votes.
Additionally, the loser has the right to request a recount at their own expense, and Reno said through an aide she would consider it, pending the results of the original count.
Many party aides have argued privately that McBride would provide the stronger challenge to Bush this fall.
Apart from the Democratic Party, Mary Frances Berry, chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a persistent critic of Gov. Bush, said she plans to ask the Justice Department ( news - web sites) to "seriously review" the state's election performance.
That's a joke, right?
Jeb Bush should take over. Jeb should demand the legislature authorize a complete and total recount under state control and supervision. The emergency law should include a provision so that all who can make the case that they were prevented from voting be allowed to vote. ... Just as soon as each has a court hearing to determine if they were in fact denied the right to vote. If they were denied they get to vote. But there should be on counting until ever voter votes.
We could get a final decision about 3 days before the election. Since democrats would be having hearings and voting right up to the end, there should be no counting until all democrats have voted. That would leave a winner or Janet Reno three days to campaign against Bush.
No one should know the winner until every voter votes. That would force Reno and McBride to keep campaigning against each other.
They must have sent their brightest up to Philadelphia to vote in the last election. We had some precincts with a 110 percent turnout, and they all voted Democrat.
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