The governor's election task force needs to address fully all the malfunctions in Florida's voting process, and it needs to hold hearings at convenient times and places.

Florida's election process malfunctioned in three distinct ways during the presidential election and its aftermath.

The technology -- e.g., hanging chads and butterfly ballots -- betrayed many voters.

Imprecise and conflicting statutes made a legal nightmare out of the recount and challenge phases.

And there is growing concern, underlying a formal investigation by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, that many would-be voters never got to cast their ballots because they were improperly turned away from the polls. Failure to register would be a proper reason, but there seem to have been more than a few people whose registrations were never recorded or were purged by official error.

The federal commission's investigation is welcome, but Florida owes it to itself to find and fix its own problems. Gov. Jeb Bush recognized that duty when he appointed the Task Force on Election Procedures, Standards and Technology, which will hold its first meetings in Tallahassee today and Tuesday.

If the commission is to carry out that duty, however, it needs to address fully all three distinct malfunctions, and it needs to hold hearings at times and places that make it convenient for voters who believe they were disenfranchised to make their voices heard. But even though Duval County had the highest undervote, no hearing is scheduled there. Initially, Orlando or Tampa was to be the only field site, though a hearing apparently is now planned for Fort Lauderdale also.

The commission should seriously consider additional hearings at Jacksonville, Miami and -- especially -- West Palm Beach. And it should resist the temptation to focus on technology to the exclusion of such other issues as unprepared poll workers, erroneous purges and breakdowns in motor-voter registration.

There's no doubt that the commission, co-chaired by former Secretary of State Jim Smith and University of Miami President Tad Foote, is seriously committed to doing a fair and thorough job despite a March 1 deadline for its recommended legislation. But an indispensable part of that job is to persuade the public of that commitment. However many long hours that takes, they will be worth it.

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