Advice to state: Play bigger role in elections

An audit says the state should help make sure poll workers are trained and voters are educated.

©Associated Press
October 31, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- To avoid problems like those experienced in the September primary, the state should take a stronger role in educating voters and poll workers, an auditing agency said Wednesday.

The state Division of Elections should identify ways to make education programs more effective and should monitor counties' procedures for determining voter eligibility, said the report from the state Office of Program Policy Analysis and Governmental Accountability.

The report noted the problems in Broward and Miami-Dade counties Sept. 10, when some polling places opened late, some voting machines weren't working and there weren't enough ballots.

"While these problems were the responsibility of local administrators, . . . the state's interest in elections is sufficient to warrant additional Division of Elections support for local supervisors of elections," the report said.

Among its suggestions:

-- Central contracting for the development of voter and poll worker training programs.

-- Training that includes election procedures and voting machine setup and operation.

-- Agreements among state and local election officials and school districts, community colleges or the Florida Cooperative Extension Service to deliver voter and poll worker training.

-- Appropriations to the Division of Elections to develop materials that supervisors of elections can use in voter education.

A spokesman for Secretary of State Jim Smith, who was visiting county election offices in Fort Myers and Sarasota on Wednesday, said Smith will reserve judgment on whether there should be a stronger state role in training voters and poll workers until he sees how the Nov. 5 election goes.

"He feels like local leaders have done an outstanding job of addressing the issues," spokesman David Host said.

The report also noted that county election supervisors have not implemented new eligibility determination procedures required by the Legislature because the process has not yet received federal approval.

The state Division of Elections completed work on a statewide database before June 1, as required, but a lack of U.S. Justice Department approval has frustrated attempts to put it into operation. The database was to be used to help counties identify felons and other ineligible voters.

Chuck Hefren, an analyst with the auditing agency, said the Justice Department has asked for more information about the system.

The report suggested that the Legislature take further steps to protect the rights of voters whose eligibility is challenged.

Those accused of being felons should have the right to rebut the charge before the election by providing fingerprints, the report said.

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