State: Florida voters back in fishbowl

Irritated that the Pasco County elections office changed her polling place this month, a woman fired off an e-mail that cut Kurt Browning to the quick.

She suggested that the veteran supervisor of elections in Pasco had singled her out because she was a registered independent.

"I'm reading this thing and I'm starting to shake because I'm so ticked," said Browning, blaming the voter's comments on the aura of distrust and fallibility that still clings to Florida elections like mold to a shower curtain.

"Florida will have this millstone around its neck for years to come," he said, lamenting the lingering effects of the 2000 election debacle. "I'm not sure it's going to end any time soon."

Judging from the number of people lining up to watch and second-guess Florida election officials on Sept. 10, Browning may be right.

The statewide primary, Florida's biggest political contest since 2000, is expected to be the most watched election in years, with national media and officials from other election-challenged states looking on.

But the keenest eyes will belong to in-state groups that have witnessed Florida's election reform up close and are not entirely impressed.

The American Civil Liberties Union, with 14 chapters around the state, is preparing legal pleadings in advance so that voters who run into problems on election day can see a judge before it's too late.

The NAACP is organizing a statewide army of poll workers who will report problems through a network of five "voter empowerment command centers" from the Panhandle to South Florida.

The Florida Coalition for Disability Rights will be collecting complaints from disabled voters who run into inaccessible polling places.

And in pockets around the state, election supervisors expect a number of other advocacy groups to be looking over their shoulders as well.

"I think the Florida Legislature has spent too much time patting themselves on the back. There were a number of problems that were not addressed," said Howard Simon, the Miami-based executive director of the ACLU of Florida.

"There are a number of things that are coming together in this election that ought to make one nervous."'

Among them, he said, are:

-- Computerized touch-screen voting machines that will be used by more than half the Florida electorate. In small elections earlier this year, many voters have praised the new devices. But Simon is bothered by a recent race in Palm Beach County where 5 percent of the voters failed to register a choice for either of the two candidates.

-- The once-a-decade redistricting process that changed many political boundaries, including precincts. Despite mailed notices, thousands of voters are expected to show up at the wrong polling places, a major test of poll workers' ability to steer people to the right precincts and not ignore or dismiss them.

-- Poll worker training. With new machines and numerous changes to election law, meagerly paid poll workers are being pushed as never before. At a recent poll worker class in Pinellas, the crush of new information was so daunting, the instructor said the class would forget 80 percent of it before the followup class three weeks later.

She pleaded with them to study at home.

"It's not all that clear what instructions and training are being given to poll workers," Simon said.

"Everybody's not going to get the same type of training," said Beverlye Neal, Florida coordinator of the NAACP's Voter Empowerment Program.

A chief concern for the ACLU and the NAACP is the first transaction that occurs when a voter arrives at the polls -- when the poll worker asks for identification.

Many elections supervisors strongly urge voters to bring their driver's licenses, and it sounds like a requirement. But it's not.

Florida law says people "should bring proper identification to the polling station." Poll workers probably will ask for a photo ID and a signature ID, or a piece of ID that contains both. That can be something as informal as a work ID or a Sam's Club membership card.

But the bottom line is that anyone can vote without identification of any kind, providing they're in the right precinct and they've registered. All they need do is fill out an "affirmation" and sign it, swearing that the information provided is true.

"When people go into the polls, I'm 100 percent sure that some poll worker is not going to understand," Neal said.

With three or four poll monitors to a precinct, the NAACP will watch for problems in areas with large populations of African-Americans who don't often vote. They will focus on some of the same issues that kept many African-Americans from voting in 2000, Neal said, including people who are mistakenly identified as felons and purged from the rolls.

Disabled advocates, meanwhile, view the upcoming election with an eye toward the future. New laws intended to improve accessibility at the polls won't go into effect until after the November election. So advocates are more focused on next year's legislative session, when state lawmakers will be pressed to back up their new requirements with the $9-million needed to put them into place.

Among the promised improvements: audio voting machines for blind voters, even in counties with paper ballots.

Stories of disenfranchised voters in the 2002 elections -- some blind, some in wheelchairs -- will help advocates make their case next year.

"I think there's some apprehension about whether the Florida law (regarding disabled voters) will ever become reality," said Doug Towne, vice president of the Florida Coalition for Disability Rights.

He said of the upcoming elections: "We'll be watching."

It is an awkward time for the 67 supervisors who run elections across Florida -- a varied group of men and women, some younger, some older, some cautious, some outspoken. Some have embraced new technology, others have avoided it. About half have held the job for six years or less. A handful are working their first major election.

Although all have a mandate to run open elections and welcome observers, there is a natural aversion to having someone check and criticize your work.

The plan to have legal pleadings at the ready on election day took shape last month in Key West as 75 ACLU lawyers convened for their annual summer meeting. The plan conjures up visions of November 2000, when lawyers were the major actors as the drama of Bush vs. Gore played out in courtrooms from Tallahassee to Miami.

"I'm just not certain that an election day problem is best served by rushing over to the circuit courthouse," Hillsborough County elections supervisor Pam Iorio said, referring to the ACLU's stable of emergency legal pleadings.

The better approach, she said, is to contact the supervisor's office.

"We want people to vote," Iorio said. "If any voter feels aggrieved at the polling place, then they should call me. They should call me directly."

Browning of Pasco County said he understands the desire to monitor the polls, but says some of it strikes him as "overreactive."

"It's almost like you're setting us up for failure," he said. "It's almost like you've decided that Florida's going to have a crappy election and there's no hope."

Not that supervisors don't expect problems.

In Miami-Dade County, Elections Supervisor David Leahy expects a "fishbowl" atmosphere on Sept. 10, complete with advocates in T-shirts and clipboards at many polling places.

Like other supervisors, he has set up a phone bank to field complaints. "We know we're going to get those calls," Leahy said.

Browning said he has lectured poll workers until he is "blue in the face" about not turning away voters who lack a driver's license. He's told them that's the last thing Florida needs, given all the state has gone through. And still they do it, he said.

"It's amazing it works as well as it does," Browning said. "We have a system that isn't perfect, but it's not as rotten as people think."

Back to State news

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk