Miami-Dade elections supervisor quits amid pressure over voting snafus

Miami Herald    31 March 2005

Miami-Dade Elections Department Supervisor Constance Kaplan resigned Thursday after County Manager George Burgess raised public questions about voting problems in six recent local elections.

This week Burgess launched an independent audit of her department and a review of five other local elections, after a faulty computer program did not count hundreds of votes in the March 8 special slots referendum. While Kaplan said the votes would not have changed the referendum's outcome, the parimutuel industry sent a letter to Burgess Thursday calling for a new election.

''We had 121,000 votes in Broward in November that were taken away from us because of a software glitch and now I'm being told that I should trust there were only 1,200 undervotes?'' said lobbyist Ron Book, later adding a thinly veiled threat. `We will pursue all remedies available under the law.''

Though the parimutuel industry paid millions to the county in advance of the March 8 slots vote ostensibly to underwrite anticipated costs for traffic control and other items Book said any new vote should be on the county's tab.

Kaplan's downfall was quick. A veteran Chicago elections official who had overseen the process in countries around the globe, she was considered the only person who could save the disaster-prone Miami-Dade elections process when she ascended to the job in June 2003. Less than two years later, the one-time savior leaves with a tattered reputation.

Burgess described the decision as mutual but acknowledged that he felt there were improvements that could be made to the department. Kaplan's resignation is effective immediately and her chief deputy supervisor of elections Lester Sola has been named director, pending commission approval.