I want this presidential campaign season behind me almost as much as I want this year's hurricane season to end. Both seasons have been nasty and destructive. So far this year, Florida has been battered by four consecutive hurricanes and their political equivalent - legions of lawyers, partisan activists and interest groups who appear determined to make Florida the punching bag of this election.
The Democratic Party's war manual instructs its lawyers and poll watchers to look for evidence of voter intimidation and suppression, especially in African-American precincts, and to file a complaint even if they don't find any. This "stolen election" crowd portrays Florida as a sinister banana republic where elections are rigged and stolen by a vast right-wing conspiracy to disenfranchise minority voters.
Even former President Jimmy Carter, the world's foremost elections observer, has added his sanctimonious voice to the debate, suggesting that Florida's voting system is still so flawed he doubts that the state can conduct a fair and honest election this year. Meanwhile, John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, is crisscrossing the state assuring black voters that he and John Kerry have "a plan" to make sure black votes are counted this time.
Democrats filed 10 election-related lawsuits in Florida weeks before the first vote was cast, alleging that elections officials are trying to game the system to favor President Bush, who is in a close race with Kerry for Florida's 27 electoral votes. On the first day of early voting, two weeks out from Election Day, the kind of human errors and technical problems that are common in most states were magnified and distorted and cited as evidence that Florida is still up to its old tricks.
Floridians knew this assault was coming. After the state's disputed presidential vote in 2000 wound up in the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of George W. Bush, Democrats cried foul and vowed never again. Regardless of whether Bush or Kerry wins on Nov. 2, let's hope it's not a close vote. And let's pray Florida's vote does not decide the election this time.
Florida's voting system still has problems, including partisan elections officials at the state and local levels, that need to be addressed. Secretary of State Glenda Hood, the top state elections official, has been as politically clumsy as her predecessor, Katherine Harris. The state scrapped its infamous and seriously flawed felon purge list and is leaving it up to county elections supervisors to enforce a state law barring convicted felons from voting. Whatever problems remain, the state's voting system is a big improvement over what was in place in 2000, the year of the hanging and dimpled chad.
After that fiasco, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature enacted some reforms, including early voting, and most of the state's largest counties replaced punch-card ballots with touch-screen voting machines. But Democrats have spent months trying to undermine public confidence in touch-screen voting, saying the technology is vulnerable to tampering and provides no paper trail if a recount is required.
So was the 2000 Florida vote as rotten as Democrats claim? Was there widespread voter suppression and intimidation in black precincts? Were Republicans behind most of the irregularities and spoiled ballots?
Let's review what the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, chaired by a partisan Democrat, Mary Frances Berry, concluded after a six-month investigation: It found no evidence of voter intimidation or intentional efforts to disenfranchise black voters. Instead, it reported that many of the problems minority voters encountered in 2000 were attributable to "inexperienced poll workers, antiquated machinery, inaccessible polling locations and other barriers . . ." that are not uncommon in other states, including Illinois, which tossed more spoiled ballots than Florida did in 2000.
Democrats don't like to be reminded that most of the ballot spoilage in 2000 occurred in South Florida counties where Democrats were in charge of the elections. For example, the infamous "butterfly" ballot that confused many voters in Palm Beach County was designed by the county's elections supervisor, a Democrat. According to the Wall Street Journal, in 24 of the 25 Florida counties with the highest ballot spoilage rates, the county supervisor was a Democrat; in the 25th county, the supervisor was an independent.
I welcome the close scrutiny that Florida will come under on Election Day, but everyone should be realistic. There will be some problems. Every vote should be counted, but there are going to be some spoiled ballots, just as there is in every election in other states. There are going to be some computer glitches and human errors, and who knows what else.
Anything, of course, can happen on Election Day in Florida - even a hurricane that some of our critics no doubt will see as just another Republican attempt to intimidate voters and keep them from the polls.
