Palm Beach Voting Snafu   (FL)

Capital News Service    05 September 2008

The day began with 3478 missing ballots in Palm Beach County. The ballots were cast August 26th and have come up missing as the state ordered a recount in a close  judicial race. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, now the state is considering sending monitors to Palm Beach for the November election.

The 3478 missing ballots in Palm Beach county has state elections officials worried about November. The Secretary of State Kurt Browning is considering his options.

We’re not quite sure what direction we’re going to go yet with that” says Browning.  “Whether we’re going to send a team in, whether we’re going to send an individual in, how long term”.

The election snafu caused the state canvassing board to certify every August 26th election result but one between two judicial candidates.

The next stop, ironically, a court room.

Since 2000, Palm Beach has gone from punch cards to touch screens and now, for the first countywide election, optical scans.

Governor Charlie Crist was asked “Do you think this will diminish voter confidence in the voting equipment?

He replied: “I hope not, I hope not. It shouldn’t.”

The drama will play out here in Tallahassee…because all election cases must be fought here. At least one of the best election lawyers in the state has already been hired.

The state is confident the votes are not lost but just misplaced and will eventually turn up. But that won’t be enough to settle the judicial race, or to quell fears that Florida could once again be a post child for inept voting.

“We’re trying to continue to dig us out of that 2000 hole that we’ve been put into” says Browning.

And the last thing election officials want is for the state to once again be the legal  battleground for the Presidency.