Despite some glitches, voting goes smoothly
MARTIN MERZER, LUISA YANEZ AND TRENTON DANIEL
Miami Herald
Nov 8, 2006
Another Election Day came and went Tuesday in Florida, once known as the Election Meltdown State. But this time, the experience pretty much boiled down to seven words:
''We get 'em in, get 'em out,'' said Jack DiBlasi, a poll worker in Key West.
Polling places in South Florida and throughout the state welcomed a steady -- if somewhat anemic -- flow of voters Tuesday, with only scattered and generally fleeting reports of problems, mostly in Broward County.
With nearly all of Florida's 6,835 precincts reporting smooth balloting, election supervisors shouldered their next challenge: quickly and accurately tabulating the vote.
Lester Sola, Miami-Dade County's elections supervisor, declared the day -- and especially the night -- a success. He wrapped up the county's vote tally by 10:20 p.m., very likely an indoor record. ''Everything has gone really well,'' he said.
In Broward, Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes echoed the sentiment, though the tally there proceeded a little more slowly: ``I think things went really well.''
WEATHER PROBLEMS
For the most part, voters agreed, though some in South Florida and other parts of the state encountered complications. Others found themselves ducking light rain -- and, in Central Florida, tornado warnings -- that might have inhibited turnout.
''It was a lot less hassle than I expected,'' Debbie Brown of Dania Beach said after voting. ``I have faith in the machines.''
Turnout was described as light to modest, with early returns suggesting that less than half of Florida's 10.4 million registered voters decided to participate in participatory democracy.
Republican U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez said the statewide turnout could end up being an embarrassment, especially if it fell significantly below 50 percent.
''In Iraq, people facing bullets voted in a much higher percentage,'' he said.
Several significant problems flared early in the day in Broward, including a fairly serious situation at a Deerfield Beach polling place, where 10 of 14 touch-screen machines malfunctioned.
Technicians traced the problem at the Deerfield Beach Tower Club Teen Center to electronic voting cartridges that apparently were mishandled by a poll worker. Voting was delayed there for almost three hours, according to Mary Cooney, spokeswoman for the Broward elections department.
''Once in two years voting comes, and on that day the voting machines break down,'' said Pervaiz Abdullah, 45. ``It's ridiculous.''
NO EXTENSION
County officials denied a request by a citizens' group to extend voting hours at that polling place. The Election Protection coalition said 50 to 75 people lost the opportunity to vote there; the county put the number at 10 to 15.
Elsewhere in Broward, voters at two precincts experienced brief delays attributed to mislabeled ballots.
Those problems briefly affected precincts at the Lauderdale Lakes Yacht Club in Fort Lauderdale and the Andrew DeGraffenreidt Community Center.
''Nothing's 100 percent smooth,'' Snipes said.
No serious problems were reported in Miami-Dade, although some voters arrived at the wrong precincts -- holding registration cards that led them astray -- and had to make quick adjustments.
One such person was Willie Mae Johnson of Liberty City, who found herself with no precinct willing to take her, even though she presented a new registration card. Finally, she voted at a precinct in North Miami-Dade. ''They can't have people ripping and running all over town all day to vote,'' Johnson said.
In Orange Park, near Jacksonville, an electronic machine malfunctioned, requiring voters to use paper ballots. In Volusia County, near Daytona Beach, some voting machine memory cards did not work properly.
That seemed to be the extent of the major problems, according to initial reports.
But many Florida voters, recalling the presidential election debacle of 2000, remained suspicious of everything, including that newfangled touch-screen machine.
Click here for more (Miami Herald)
