Voters Breathe a Sigh of Relief in South Florida

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The New York Sun

MIAMI, Fla. – Fears of large-scale disputes over voter registrations were not realized yesterday in Florida, Ohio, and elsewhere across the country as voters cast ballots with few major problems but many minor glitches. Tens of thousands of voters reported problems finding their names on registration lists, but legal observers at many precincts said they were able to resolve most of the problems.


However, a flurry of litigation unfolded late yesterday as lawyers in several battleground states challenged details of the election process, including polling hours, line-ups, and the handling of provisional and absentee ballots.


In Columbus and one other Ohio county, a federal judge ordered polling hours to be extended and paper ballots to be given to anyone still standing in line after Democrats complained that inadequate machines had resulted in long lines in certain areas.


In Cincinnati, a voter sued Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, alleging he failed to provide guidance that will assure that all provisional ballots are counted equally. In Toledo, a judge ordered the state to inform all election workers that voters who allege they did not receive an absentee ballot may vote by a provisional ballot.


In Philadelphia, Republicans sued to delay the opening of more than 12,000 absentee ballots until eligible voter lists could be verified.


Although a few new electronic voting machines broke down in Florida and several other states, Florida voters breathed a provisional sigh of relief that at least the mechanics of voting on new electronic machines seemed to go more smoothly than the punch-card ballots in 2000.


However, problems with missing absentee ballots led to a lawsuit and concern that a final vote count may not be ready for several days.


The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Florida Legal Services launched a lawsuit yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on behalf of voters in Broward and Miami-Dade counties whose absentee ballots went missing and who did not receive replacement absentee ballots in time for them to meet last night’s deadline. The state had rushed 20,000 replacement absentee ballots to voters over the weekend.


“This lawsuit became necessary to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised due to no fault of their own, only the negligence of election officials,” said the lead counsel in the suit, Randall Marshall.


But overall, Florida Democrats said voting in the Sunshine State had gone smoothly.


“There were small problems here and there, but we were prepared to handle them and they were resolved quickly, ensuring more people’s right to vote,” said a Democratic spokesman, Brian Richardson.


Threats of Republican challenges to large numbers of voter registrations for the most part did not materialize, he said.


On the other hand, Republicans complained that some of their poll watchers were removed from precincts by police, threatened by poll workers, and harassed by Kerry campaign workers.


A spokesman for the Florida Republican Party, Joseph Agostini, said he did not have any evidence of voter fraud last evening, “but we’re going to be looking at all the issues very carefully.”


South Florida voters leaving polling stations said they were satisfied.


“It was really nice. Nothing happened,” said Anna Fernandez, a 19-year-old student who voted near downtown Miami after waiting three hours in an early morning lineup.


“It was very smooth, effective, and efficient,” said Neil Ross, a 30-year-old owner of a marketing company who voted at the Miami Botanical Gardens.


Given the experience here four years ago, many voters were wary of pronouncing the election a success before a clear winner was announced.


“I’m sure in 2000, before it all started, if you had asked voters about hanging chads, they wouldn’t know what you were talking about. Whatever the electronic equivalent is going to be this time, we’ll find out later on,” said Joseph Prosser, a 54-year-old industrial salesman who voted in the city of Hollywood in Broward County, where punch-card ballots were disputed in the 2000 recount.


At a largely African-American and Cuban-American precinct near downtown Miami, Democratic attorney Rick Wolfe said voting had gone smoothly all day. The only snags were voters who showed up at the wrong precinct. Voting was also slowed by the arrival of a blind voter who required assistance and a woman who suffered an epileptic seizure.


“I’m glad there is nothing newsworthy here,” he said.


Several people with felony records who had applied to have their voting rights restored had come to see whether they could vote. When they learned they could not, they chose to go home rather than wait another hour to cast a provisional ballot, Mr. Wolfe said. There had been no challenges by Republicans.


However, he was concerned that the machine at the precinct was one of several dozen across the state that malfunctioned. Election officials said votes could be downloaded from the machines, and observers from both parties said they would be watching closely to make sure that they were.


Glitches and alleged partisan tricks were reported by activists across the state, and tens of thousands of phone calls streamed in to voter hot-lines across the country.


A precinct captain for the MoveOn PAC in Miami Beach, Marc Melina, complained that the organization’s phone lines had been shut down that morning, preventing volunteers from making calls to voters. He said volunteers had “Republican conspiracy theories” but no proof that foul play was involved.


Republicans sought an injunction against MoveOn activists for soliciting voters too close to the voting booths, but a judge threw out the case for lack of evidence.


The group Common Cause, part of a coalition of attorneys called Election Protection, received 50,000 calls to their voter hot-line by midafternoon yesterday. The highest numbers came from Florida’s Broward County and the Pittsburgh area. Most of the complaints involved problems with absentee ballots and voter registrations. Registration challenges, voter intimidation, technical problems with machines, and provisional ballots each accounted for less than 3% of the calls, said a spokesman for the group, James Benton.


The problems appeared to be due more to a high turnout of new voters than to foul play, he said. However,


some voters who did not receive absentee ballots reported that upon arriving at polling stations, they were told their votes had already been cast.


The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People launched a lawsuit yesterday in Louisiana, where voters were allegedly turned away due to machine malfunctions and improper identification requests.


“What we are trying to do is not to upset any election results, but to ensure that…these individuals are allowed to vote and that their votes are counted,” said the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Theodore Shaw.


The New York Sun

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