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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 17, 2001
Secretary of State Katherine Harris Friday accused Sen. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, of making election reform a partisan issue.
In a letter to Meek, Harris objected to criticism he leveled at her for not giving the public more notice about a series of hearings.
Last week Meek accused Harris of failing to adequately advertise hearings in Miami, Tampa and Palm Beach, saying she should have used some of the $6-million legislators appropriated for voter education.
Harris noted that the money was sent to Florida's 67 counties with none given to the state for education. For that reason, Harris relied on the state's county elections supervisors to publicize the hearings, she said.
Harris said the legal notices she posted met the letter of the law. In addition, the Miami Herald publicized the event, she said.
If Meek were interested in anything but "political grandstanding," he would have contacted her directly, Harris wrote.