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Republican corrections of applications detailed
©New York Times © St. Petersburg Times, published November 26, 2000 In Seminole County, where the Republican election chief allowed Republican Party workers to correct thousands of flawed absentee-ballot applications, new details of the incident have emerged. Supervisor of Elections Sandra Goard has been sued by a local Democratic lawyer, who accused her of breaking election law when she let a Republican Party worker use her offices for as long as 10 days to fix the absentee forms. Goard had described the area he used as a warehouse, but in depositions Wednesday she said that the room was full of computer terminals linked to her election database, and that the Republican Party worker was joined by a second man, whom she could not identify. Both men were allowed to use the room unsupervised, she said. Gov. George W. Bush gained more than 10,000 absentee votes in heavily Republican Seminole County, compared with about 5,200 for Vice President Al Gore, and the lawsuit is seeking to have all the absentee votes thrown out. Gore could win Florida, and thus the presidential race, if the lawsuit prevails. Lawyers for the election supervisor and the state Republican Party, which also was sued, have said they did nothing wrong. They also stress that only absentee applications and not ballots were involved. The absentee problem arose when the Republican Party blanketed the state with applications for absentee ballots, which it sent to registered Republicans. The Democrats did the same for its supporters, but the Republicans misprinted many of its forms with stray numerals instead of the required voter's identification number. Florida anti-vote-fraud law places strict rules on how absentee ballots can be obtained, and in 1998 the state election office ruled that while it was acceptable for political parties to mail and even collect the absentee applications, the voters or their close relatives or guardians must provide identifying information, including their voter-registration numbers. Both parties interpret the law as allowing them to supply the data as a convenience, as long as the voters then sign and return the forms. In Seminole County, Goard had rejected the flawed Republican applications as they poured into her office in the days before the election, but she then allowed the Republican Party to correct and resubmit the forms without the voters' knowledge or consent. Goard, in depositions, said that a GOP worker, Michael Leach, brought his own laptop computer with which to add the missing voter-identification numbers. She said the room served as her telephone bank and contained 18 computer terminals linked to a mainframe that stored all of her voter records. She said the terminals had password protection but that Leach worked unsupervised and that she placed no controls on his comings and goings. Goard said the room also contained the desk of her election-equipment technician, and that she did not know how often he was present or what materials he had on his desk. She said that Leach was joined for a while by another man, whom she could not identify, and that she made no effort to check what they took into or out of her offices. "Do you know how long that person was there?" Goard was asked. "No," she replied, adding that she couldn't describe him or say what he did. She said that he appeared one day with Leach, and that she made no effort to learn who he was. "Did Leach ever inform you he was going to bring someone else?" she was asked. "Not that I recall," Goard replied. GOP officials have said the second man was Ryan Mitchell, whom they identified only as a party volunteer. Mitchell could not be reached for comment. Leach has not returned phone messages left for him.
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