Spirit of distrust over 2000 election haunts primary

By Jane Musgrave

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, August 30, 2004

To get an idea of the paranoia and distrust that is swirling around Tuesday's election, consider:

n At least a half-dozen groups have set up toll-free numbers for voters to call if they encounter problems.

n Roughly 400 people — about two times more than normal — will be inside Palm Beach County polls watching to make sure no one is denied the right to vote.
 

n Teams of lawyers have been assembled to be ready to intervene if problems arise.

n In reaction to a constant barrage of criticism about the efficacy of touch-screen voting machines, record numbers of voters in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast have requested absentee ballots to create a paper record in case recounts are needed.

And Tuesday's precautions pale in comparison to battle plans already being drawn up for the main event: the presidential election in November.

In what sounds like a bad joke, an international group is to send observers to the United States to make sure the election is conducted fairly.

"I'd be shocked if they didn't come to Florida," said Fred Turner, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings. The Miramar Democrat, who represents voters from southern Broward to St. Lucie counties, is a leading member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The reason the 29-year-old organization decided to see whether the United States, in general, and Florida, in particular, can conduct an election as well as, say, Russia or Kosovo, is obvious, Turner said.

"After the 2000 election, the world saw that maybe this beacon of democracy has its own warts," he said.

And those warts that put the presidency in limbo for 37 rollicking, angst-filled days in 2000 show no signs of being excised.

On Friday, four days before Tuesday's election, Democrats began questioning the handling of some absentee ballots, hinting that a lawsuit may be filed. On the same day, an administrative law judge sided with those who have long argued that the 15 counties that replaced their chad-producing punch card machines with touch-screen equipment, must be able to produce a paper record of individual ballots.

Although the decision is likely to be appealed, the reaction from the Florida Division of Elections was grim.

"This ruling takes Florida back to 2000," said a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood, referring to those hanging and pregnant chads that threw the presidential election into chaos.

And this morning, the county's canvassing board, which peered and squinted at those tiny chads for days on end in 2000, meets to determine whether hundreds of this year's absentee ballots — some were punched through, cut up and, in one instance, microwaved — should be counted.

Further, some who have requested to be poll workers are screaming that Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore still had not approved their requests by Saturday.

That controversy is already broiling comes as little surprise to those who have watched Florida elections during the past four years.

Myriad problems have fueled distrust of the system. In Broward County, recurring malfunctions, such as inoperative voting machines that forced a two-hour extension of voting during the 2002 gubernatorial election, ultimately led to the removal of Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant. There have been ongoing concerns about the way the state purges felons from voting lists, a process that disproportionately affects blacks.

Even small elections have snatched headlines. In January, a relatively insignificant race for a legislative seat became the focus of national interest when 137 people cast blank votes, even though there was only one race on the ballot. The outcome of the election for the Palm Beach-Broward state House seat, decided by 12 votes, deepened concerns about whether electronic machines can be trusted.

In fact, concerns about the system have almost overshadowed the election itself. And it's not an inconsequential election.

Statewide, voters will decide among seven Republicans and four Democrats seeking their party's nomination to replace one of the state's most revered politicians, retiring U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.

Locally, voters will be asked to decide heated races for sheriff, property appraiser, tax collector, state House and county commission seats, judicial office and school board.

But in Palm Beach County, even the local races are inextricably linked to the 2000 election, as LePore is one of the dozens of candidates who will appear on the ballot this time around. Her opponent for the now nonpartisan office, former school board member Arthur Anderson, has not been shy about reminding voters of her role as author of the butterfly ballot in the fateful election.

Those leading efforts to make sure voters are armed with proper information Tuesday said that, although many of the problems of 2000 have been resolved, too many remain.

Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said that, although much of the focus has been on the machines, many of the potential pitfalls involve human error.

"A good number of the problems in 2000 and the ones we will have in 2004 involve inadequate voter education and inadequate poll worker training," he said.

Voters don't know their rights and all-too-often untrained poll workers don't either.

For instance, he said, when he went to the polls to vote early last week, he asked what would happen if he didn't have a photo ID. One worker properly told him he would have to file an affidavit, while another chimed in that he wouldn't be able to vote.

"People don't understand that, while you're legally required to be asked for an ID, no one can be turned away for not having one," he said.

It's those kind of problems his civil rights group hoped to address in so-called voter empowerment cards they are distributing to tens of thousands of voters statewide and by setting up a toll-free election day hot line for people to call on election day.

Others, however, write off such concerns as fear-mongering.

Sid Dinerstein, chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party, said he had no problem casting a vote last week before leaving for the Republican National Convention in New York City.

The problems, he insisted, are the creation of Democrats who are still angry over losing the presidency.

"There will always be voter error and that's because voting is done by voters," he said.