Sunrise, Florida - To Miriam Oliphant, the keys to life and elections are the same: preparation and organization.
These days the Broward County election supervisor is all about details - 60 classes a week for county poll workers, an inventory of iVotronic voting machines stacked in a warehouse, even blue aprons for precinct clerks that will hold the all-important computer-card keys needed to operate the machines.
"I am going to do everything I possibly can to correct a system that has been broken," Oliphant said. "We know change is long overdue in Broward County."
Across the nation, election officials are entering crunch time in their first major test since the confusion of Election Day 2000. They are pumping up voter education, improving training for poll workers, and placing a premium on details that might have been overlooked in the past.
Twenty-four states hold primaries in August and September. Among them, Florida and 10 others conduct their primaries Sept. 10.
Florida, infamous for hanging chads on punch-card ballots, was the focal point of the protracted 2000 presidential battle that ended with George W. Bush beating Al Gore by just 537 votes in the state.
Florida lawmakers approved a series of reforms last year, including outlawing punch-card ballots and authorizing $32 million for new equipment and voter education.
Among Florida counties, Broward's efforts at improvements are drawing attention because the county has nearly one million registered voters, the most in the state, and features a diverse population of elderly, suburban dwellers and Spanish- and Creole-speaking voters.
Since taking over 18 months ago, Oliphant has initiated a flurry of innovations.
To introduce voters to the new ATM-style, touch-screen voting machines, Oliphant has held demonstrations at supermarkets and community centers. She is borrowing 144 phone lines from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale to handle calls from confused workers and voters on Election Day.
And to recruit 6,000 poll workers, Oliphant has tapped corporations and county employees with backgrounds in customer service and technology. Public employees who volunteer as poll workers will receive a paid day off plus $100 for working the 14-hour day.
"We truly cannot think of a more responsible, patriotic thing to do than to be involved in the election process on the eve of 9/11," said Bob Cantrell, who runs the county's poll worker operation.
At a four-hour training class for poll workers in Sunrise, Leroy Mattear and nine others got hands-on training on the new machines and voting procedures.
Two years ago, his training session held about 500 poll workers, many of whom chatted casually or left the hall at their leisure, Mattear said. "Now it's like school," he said.
Elsewhere in Florida, Hillsborough County elections chief Pam Iorio has held nearly 400 road shows to display the new technology, but she says many supervisors are still worried.
"There's a concern among supervisors that any little bump along the way will be exaggerated because it's Florida," Iorio said
It's evident Miriam Oliphant isn't just another pretty face. She's a Democrat!