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.
Reno runnung for Gov. and doesn't know the voting laws?
This is a popular Democrat campain trick. Act stupid. - Wait a minute! They are stupid!
BTW, how will Republicans benifit? If people cast one legal vote, where's the problem?
TO ALL FLORIDA VOTERS:
Florida voters, help prevent election fraud. Unless you area a poll worker or certified poll watcher, you may not remain inside the polling place for any reason other than to vote. HOWEVER, keep your eyes and ears open while you are there. ANY VOTER MAY CHALLENGE THE RIGHT OF ANOTHER TO VOTE. Here is the pertinent law:
101.111 Person desiring to vote may be challenged; challenger to execute oath; oath of challenged elector; determination of challenge.--
(1) When the right to vote of any person who desires to vote is questioned by any elector or watcher, the challenge shall be reduced to writing with an oath as provided in this section, giving reasons for the challenge, which shall be delivered to the clerk or inspector. Any elector or authorized poll watcher challenging an elector at an election shall execute the oath set forth below:
(See link for form with oath)
(2) Before a challenged elector is permitted to vote by any officer or person in charge of admission to the polling place, the challenged elector's right to vote shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of subsection (3). The clerk or inspector shall immediately deliver to the challenged elector a copy of the oath of the person entering the challenge and shall request the challenged elector to execute the following affidavit:
(See link for form with oath)
Any inspector or clerk of election may administer the oath.
(3) If the challenged person refuses to make and sign the affidavit, the clerk or inspector shall refuse to allow him or her to vote. If such person makes the affidavit, the inspectors and clerk of election shall compare the information in the affidavit with that entered on the registration books opposite the person's name, and, upon such comparison of the information and the person's signature and the taking of other evidence which may then be offered, the clerk and inspectors shall decide by a majority vote whether the challenged person may vote. If the challenged person is unable to write or sign his or her name, the clerk or inspector shall examine the precinct register to ascertain whether the person registered under the name of such person is represented to have signed his or her name. If the person is so represented, then he or she shall be denied permission to vote without further examination; but, if not, then the clerk or one of the inspectors shall place such person under oath and orally examine him or her upon the subject matter contained in the affidavit, and, if there is any doubt as to the identity of such person, the clerk or inspector shall compare the person's appearance with the description entered upon the precinct register opposite the person's name. The clerk or inspector shall then proceed as in other cases to determine whether the challenged person may vote.
Are we allowed to check for a pulse in Democrat voters? If they bring them in covered in maggots in wheelbarrows, can we call foul?
Please take a minute and contact your local AP bureau. They need to hear from us:
AP Florida contact info:
FLORIDA (Control Bureau: Miami)
Cape Canaveral
P.O. Box 327
Cape Canaveral FL 32920-0327
(407) 639-8801
639-1966 Fax
Jacksonville Florida Times-Union Bldg.
1 Riverside Avenue
Jacksonville FL 32202-4984
(904) 356-2829
356-4463 Fax
Miami
9100 NW 36th Street, Suite 104
Miami FL 33178-2420
(305) 594-5825
Orlando
P.O. Box 2831
Orlando FL 32802-2831
(407) 425-4547
650-0595 Photos
648-8011 Fax
Pensacola
P.O. Box 12710
Pensacola FL 32574-2710
(850) 438-4951
438-0720 Fax
Tallahassee
336 E. College Avenue, Suite 301
Tallahassee FL 32301-1560
(850) 224-1211
Tampa
P.O Box 191
Tampa FL 33601-0191
(813) 254-6316
W. Palm Beach
P.O. Box 24700
West Palm Beach FL 33416-4700
(561) 832-3466
832-9739 Fax
Who would have ever thought it: a former US Attorney General claiming ignorance of the law as an 'excuse'.
Democrats are pigs in pigs clothing.
EXCELLENT ANALYSIS !!...
FReegards,
David
This story was played as a "bombshell" on the 6 o'clock news on Channel 10, in response to which I wrote the following to the news anchor and the reporter:
The only real bombshell in tonight's report about The Committee to Stop Bill McBride and its efforts to staff polling places --- a perfectly understandable proposal since south Florida is now the laughingstock of the nation because Democratic Party hacks cannot run the polls effectively ---- was the blatant misuse of the public airwaves by Channel 10, and the direct pipeline the Democratic Party obviously has into the Channel 10 newsroom. Are you both on on the payroll of the Democrat Party? If not, you certainly should be, considering the hard work you did on its behalf tonight, five days before an election.What kind of credible, non-partisan journalist would even think about calling this story a BOMBSHELL? Do you folks have no shame at all?
Wonder what ever happened to those thousands of stinkin lawyers they were going to have watchin the polls. Or how many of those poll watcher apps they did submit are lawyers.
Godspeed
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