Blaming Jeb For Voting Mess Is A Pitiful Democratic Deceit

It appears that at 5 p.m. today, Tampa's Bill McBride will finally - and officially - become the Democratic Party's gubernatorial nominee when the state division of elections announces the outcome of last Tuesday's election.

McBride declared victory on Friday, but rival Janet Reno refused to concede as long as Broward and Miami-Dade counties, her strongholds, continued to find uncounted votes lodged in the bowels of the touch-screen machines used in the counties' precincts.

Though there may have been some trouble with the machinery itself, it seems more likely now that minimally trained poll workers unintentionally caused many of the problems. The machines apparently recorded the votes, but because of human error, the tally reported to the state was incomplete.

Moreover, as has been amply reported, some people were turned away from polling places that opened late. Many precincts were not ready for the voters.

The supervisors of elections in both counties have egg on their face. But who is getting the blame?

Both McBride and Reno have said as much: Because the election was held ``on his watch,'' it's his fault.

Baloney. To blame Bush, who signed an election reform package that provided millions to help the counties make the reforms, is absurd. And wholly about politics. And voters know it.

Democrats control Broward and Miami-Dade counties. And if any one person is to blame for the troubles in either place, it would be the elections supervisor in charge. Neither Miriam Oliphant in Broward nor David Leahy in Miami- Dade spent enough time recruiting and training poll workers. And both waited too long to buy the hardware and have it delivered.

Yet The Miami Herald reported Sunday that Reno's campaign is trying to build a case against the touch-screen machinery in an effort to blame the fiasco on Bush and the election law. The goal is to focus Democrats on Election 2000 and the voting irregularities they blame for the White House win of the governor's brother.

But Republicans aren't likely to sit quietly by and take the blame when Democrat-controlled bodies selected the vendor for the voting machines in Broward and Miami-Dade and then didn't have the people in place to competently service the machinery or help the voters.

To blame Bush is as preposterous as any suggestion by conspiracy theorists that perhaps the Democratic hierarchy that favored McBride made sure chaos reigned in South Florida to rob the party's favorite daughter. It's a baseless theory, though we suspect the Democratic hierarchy is not altogether unhappy with the outcome down there.

The failures in Broward and Miami- Dade have already renewed talk about federal election reform, but Florida's reform would already meet the proposed federal standards.

Jeb Bush signed a bill authorizing the payment of $24 million toward creation of a uniform system of voting. Each of the state's 41 counties that did not use precinct-based optical scanning equipment was required, at a minimum, to purchase optical scanning machinery.

The largest counties, including Hillsborough and those in South Florida, went beyond the minimum standard to purchase more advanced - and expensive - touch-screen equipment. Interestingly, the counties that had a successful election chose a different vendor.

The state provided between $3,750 and $7,500 for each precinct in every county. Moreover, lawmakers also set aside $6 million for voter education and $2 million toward the creation of a database that would purge voter registries of felons, dead people and duplicate voters. The database is not completed.

Lawmakers gave the money and marching orders. The governor signed the bill. And it was up to the counties to make sure the elections went smoothly. Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Polk are proof that that can be accomplished.

Reno may have a case against the supervisor's offices and the vendor of the voting machines purchased by Broward and Miami-Dade counties. She has no case against the state. And absolutely no case against Jeb Bush.

This was a letter to the editor in today's Tallahassee Democrat

State officials bear some responsibility

Gov. Jeb Bush is now placing all the blame on the officials from Miami-Dade and Broward in the latest voting debacle, but those responsible for monitoring the election process improvements should also accept some of the blame.

The secretary is the state's chief election officer. It would seem that this person has some responsibility to monitor what is being done in all Florida counties.

Although Katherine Harris has now been rewarded for her loyal and faithful service to the Republican Party, she was in the office of Secretary of State for the last several years. What did she do to ensure that the Florida election process was getting fixed? Oddly enough, we haven't seen her in the news. Maybe she doesn't know the law on this issue either.

When a leader makes a mistake, he or she should accept responsibility and fix the problem. When a loser makes a mistake, he blames someone else.

We don't need a governor who waits for things to get broken. We need a governor who keeps the system working and is man enough to accept responsibility if he is part of the problem.

RAY BELONGIE

rayboyusmc@netzero.net

There are so many falacies in the letter that its not even worth responding to. What a typical, yet childish mindset that Jeb is somehow partially responsible for this. The logic is amazing.

Article from the St. Petersburg Pravda (it was almost unbelievable to see something like this printed in the Times):

Misdirected blame won't explain the Election Day debacle

By PHILIP GAILEY, Times Editor of Editorials © St. Petersburg Times published September 15, 2002

It's not always easy being a Florida Democrat. Sometimes it requires you to shut down your critical faculties and disconnect yourself from reality in order to buy into the party line.

Last week's election is a case in point. Bill McBride pulled off a stunning upset in narrowly defeating Janet Reno for the Democratic nomination for governor. Unfortunately for McBride, however, his unofficial victory was anticlimactic, a secondary story. The big news was that Florida had botched another close election. Voting machines malfunctioned. Some polling places opened five hours late because poll workers didn't show up on time. The delays and glitches caused hundreds of citizens to give up in disgust and leave without voting. Almost everything that could go wrong did.

Democrats, as usual, rounded up the usual suspects and pointed a finger of blame at Gov. Jeb Bush. Never mind that the worst of the voting problems were in Broward and Miami-Dade, where Democrats are in charge of local government and elections. Before the fall campaign is over, Bush can expect to be blamed for sinkholes, hurricanes and dead manatees. Bush has a lot to answer for, but it's ridiculous for Democrats to suggest that he should be held responsible for Tuesday's election problems.

After the 2000 presidential election debacle, the state vowed it would never happen again. The Legislature rushed through a package of election reforms and gave local officials $32-million to get ready for the 2002 elections. Some counties tossed the old punch-card balloting machines that gave us hanging and dimpled chads two years ago and replaced them with touch screen technology as simple to use as an ATM machine. And best of all, former Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the state's bumbling top elections official in 2000, left office to run for Congress.

With these changes, what could possibly go wrong?

The answer is, plenty. A headline in the Dallas Morning News put it this way: Florida Vote Goes from Chad to Worse.

We have now learned that technology is no better than the people who use it and that incompetent local election officials can still make a mess of things. Some of the biggest problems last Tuesday occurred in Broward County, where Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant, a Democrat, proved that Katherine Harris is not the only incompetent when it comes to elections. Oliphant came into office two years ago without any experience and proceeded to replace some of her office's most seasoned staffers with her own cronies. She also spurned offers of assistance from other elections supervisors who must have sensed that she was clueless.

Katherine Harris could not have made a bigger mess in Broward. Once again, Florida is a national laughingstock. And what did Oliphant have to say about it all: "Considering what happened, I think it was a good day." I'd hate to see what she would consider a bad Election Day. Her Miami-Dade counterpart at least offered an apology, even though most of the problems in his county were not of his making.

To listen to Democratic Party leaders, however, you would never know that the election fiasco in Broward and neighboring Miami-Dade had anything to do with Miriam Oliphant or other Democratic elections officials.

This from Democratic Party chairman Bob Poe: "When it comes to election reform, photo-ops are more important to Jeb Bush than protecting the people's right to vote. Given Florida's past experience, Jeb Bush should have spent the past two years working overtime with our state's elections supervisors to do whatever was necessary to ensure Florida's primary went smoothly. Due to Jeb Bush's lack of leadership, Florida has again been embarrassed in the eyes of the nation."

The governor has many responsibilities, but the last time I looked, running local elections is not one of them. That's the job of local elections supervisors such as Miriam Oliphant.

If you buy into Poe's line of reasoning, a Jacksonville precinct that opened 90 minutes late was not the fault of poll workers who didn't realize they were supposed to turn on the voting machines. Obviously, it was the governor's responsibility to make sure the machines were turned on.

Should Bush also be blamed for the fact that hundreds of voters were unable to mark a ballot in a Miami precinct because it took five hours to activate voting machines? And what about all those poll workers who didn't show up in Broward? Does that go on Bush's record, too?

It's time to fix the blame where it belongs -- with local elections officials in those counties that screwed up. Except for a few scattered glitches and problems, most Florida counties did just fine on Tuesday. It's South Florida, a Democratic stronghold, that keeps making a farce of our elections.

Democrats are demanding that Bush do something before the Nov. 5 general election. There is one thing Bush can and should do. He should suspend Miriam Oliphant and put someone in charge of Broward voting who knows how to conduct an election. The Democrats won't like that, of course, and they'll accuse Bush of everything from political interference in local elections to racism (Oliphant is an African-American).

Meanwhile, Bill McBride has some serious issues he wants to take up with Jeb Bush in the fall campaign. It would help if Democrats like Bob Poe shut up, got real and let McBride do the talking.

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