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A Times Editorial
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 16, 2000
What could Katherine Harris have been thinking when, as secretary of state and chief elections officer, she agreed to be a Florida campaign co-chair for Gov. George W. Bush? When she stumped for him in New Hampshire last winter?
Did she assume that she wouldn't be called upon to make controversial calls in his favor back home in Tallahassee?
Or that if she did, the public would overlook her partisanship?
Or is it that she simply didn't care?
Harris' indifference to the credibility of her office and the integrity of Florida's election process is understandable only as a symptom of the arrogance that can come from being a lame duck. She won her office in the same election that abolished it as part of the Cabinet reform proposed by the Constitution Revision Commission of 1998. When her term expires in January 2002, the eclectic duties of secretary of state will be reassigned.
To whom they will be reassigned remains undecided, and it's a much bigger question now that Harris has so memorably demonstrated the unwisdom of allowing a chief elections officer to be so partisan. Most of her minimally controversial duties, such as keeping state and corporate records and sustaining the arts, could properly and safely be entrusted to a governor's appointee. But her most important responsibility -- though she obviously did not regard it as such -- needs to be insulated from partisan politics if the elections division is to regain the public confidence it once enjoyed.
The Legislature should also consider requiring elected officials to disqualify themselves from acting on any controversy affecting a campaign in which they took part. Having been Al Gore's state chair, Attorney General Bob Butterworth should have thought better of involving himself in a dispute with Harris.
There are still some things we can learn from the mother country. In the United Kingdom, according to the British information service in New York, elections are supervised by career civil servants under the aegis of the judiciary. It would be unthinkable for any of them to campaign for a candidate or lend their name to the candidate's organization. Florida's Constitution might have to be amended to copy that system here, but it should be considered. Short of that, the Elections Commission could be empowered to appoint and supervise the Division of Elections. Whatever the decision, it needs to be carefully conceived. Public confidence in Florida's election process urgently needs from the Legislature the sort of thoughtful respect that it has not received from Harris.