don-don-don't panic!
Posted on 10/31/2002 10:39:47 PM PST by kattracks
MIAMI (AP) -- Democrats filed a lawsuit Thursday to prevent Republicans from stacking polling sites in Miami-Dade County with GOP-picked poll watchers.
A judge set an emergency hearing for Friday to consider whether Republicans and a political action committee called the Emergency Committee to Stop Bill McBride had an unfair advantage in assigning poll watchers for Tuesday's elections. McBride is the Democratic nominee for governor.
State law allows each party and candidate to have one watcher in each polling room during the election. Poll watchers can challenge the eligibility of voters.
The Democrats, led by former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, said in the complaint that GOP officials unfairly benefited from new rules the Democrats learned of only after it was too late to submit forms.
The new rules make it easier for parties and candidates to submit lists of names of poll watchers. As a result, the plaintiffs said, the Miami-Dade Elections office accepted hundreds of Republican poll watchers designated under less restrictive rules.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said Democrats had signed about 145 poll watchers. The committee opposing McBride said on its web site Thursday that it had submitted 456 signed poll watcher forms.
The plaintiffs want the judge to either reject all the poll workers not submitted under the previous rules or allow Democrats to submit names under the same rules.
Also Thursday, some voters faced long lines during early voting in Broward and Miami-Dade. Many faced lines of nearly two hours in one early voting site in Broward.
But election officials said it was unfair to compare the early voting system at six sites with voting at more than 774 precincts on Election Day.
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On the Net:
Emergency Committee to Stop Bill McBride: http://www.stopmcbride.com/
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
I almost agree. The only thing I'd change is the "ANY", which would read "EVERY" in my statement. They're cheating even where they would win handily with no cheating.
I mentioned this to my hubby a few days ago, and he said, "Whose fault was it that there were no Republicans there?" I had to stammer, "Uh, the Republicans'?"
I wonder if there are not enough Republicans to go around in these crooked counties if out-of-state observers are allowed? If so, I hope the elections in 2004 are already recruiting for these observer positions!
(The GOP is getting active and planning to confront voter fraud head-on? Since when did the party leadership grow a spine? No matter, I'm happy anyway!)
Offered to help with what? I missed the article you're referring to, but I can just imagine the Dems saying "no, we've got everything under control here (wink, wink)" I think there must be things I don't understand about the process that Democrats would be allowed to run their voting procedures any way they please..
State law allows each party and candidate to have one watcher in each polling room during the election.
Perhaps the law should not just ALLOW poll watchers from both parties, but DEMAND it? But even then, a Democrat could register as a Republican just to do that job, huh?
Ack! I am having trouble finding the article, but it details how the Dems turned down (i think) $10 million from the State to correct voting issues down there.
Anyone got a link to the article/new source? Thanks.
PUBLISHED WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2002
Alisa LaPolt
News Journal correspondent
TALLAHASSEE - How many lawyers does it take to run an election? More than 1,000, if it's in Florida.
Nearly that many attorneys from in and out of state plan to monitor polls on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, ready to respond to voters spurned by confusing ballots, malfunctioning equipment or intimidating poll workers.
Even more will be waiting in the wings, ready to roll if trouble is reported.
Democratic attorney Curt Levine, a former legislator and now a Tallahassee lobbyist, expects to be sent into Republican territory - to either Santa Rosa or Escambia county - on Election Day.
"A lot of smaller counties have very few people and we have a wealth of people here in Leon County," Levine said. He won't have his marching orders until this weekend.
The lawyers will have signs up offering legal advice to voters, said DNC spokeswoman Maria Cardona. "If voters are turned away from the polls, they can turn to a lawyer on site."
The Republican Party of Florida will be less visible but will have as many as 400 attorneys on standby, ready to react if party poll watchers see "anything out of the ordinary," said state party spokesman Towson Fraser.
"The DNC thing looks pretty intrusive," Fraser said. "You don't want a bunch of people in the voting place intimidating voters."
Lance Block, former president of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, said his law firm will be "ground zero in Palm Beach County."
The DNC has established a toll-free line (866-VOTE-411) that gives voters 60 seconds to report precinct problems, then refers them to their county's election supervisor to do the same.
"(The hotline) gives us a chance to write them down and keep a record," said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Ryan Banfill.
The DNC has similar "protect the vote" initiatives under way in Texas, Minnesota, Arkansas and other states where Democrats stand to win key governorships or congressional seats, Cardona said.
But the effort is paramount in Florida, where Gov. Jeb Bush is in a tight re-election race with Democratic challenger Bill McBride. The state has yet to prove to the rest of the nation it can hold a trouble-free election since the 2000 presidential election.
Bush and his top elections chief, Secretary of State Jim Smith, have asked U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to send poll monitors, offering another level of scrutiny beyond that of county employees and poll watchers from each party.
Both parties have assembled their legal teams for standby.
Tallahassee attorney Mark Herron, who represents the Democratic Party, has been running in his mind all possible scenarios and problems.
"After the last two elections, it seems like the thing to do," he said.
"You have to sit and think about all these `horribles.' Before, you used to sit and count votes."
don-don-don't panic!
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