Rivals hold 2000 problems against Palm Beach County's elections chief

By Anthony Man
Posted March 5 2004

West Delray · Passions over the 2000 presidential election flared Thursday as Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore's re-election challengers, and some in a debate audience, cited it as grounds to oust her.

One audience member, Michael McCullion of West Palm Beach, was so vehement that management at the South County Civic Center called park rangers, who summoned sheriff's deputies. McCullion already had stormed out, but deputies stayed for the rest of the debate.
Many Democrats have not forgiven LePore for the design of the 2000 ballot.

To help voters with poor eyesight, she decided to use large type. But the long list of candidates were spread on two facing pages and voters had to punch holes in the middle of the computer cards then used for voting. Some of Democrat Al Gore's supporters said they were confused and voted incorrectly.

Challenger Arthur Anderson's criticism was softer than McCullion's. He called the butterfly ballot "a most unfortunate circumstance."

Ellie Whittey, another candidate, said LePore could have avoided the problem by showing her ballot design to other elections officials.

LePore said she sent samples in advance to a range of people including Democratic and Republican party representatives. "Nobody said one word about there being a problem until Election Day."

Pointing to the new equipment in Palm Beach County and the rest of Florida and new election laws, she urged people not to relive the past.

"We have to look to the future," she said. "It's a dead issue because it's in the past and we have to move on."

LePore contrasted the smooth elections she has run since 2000 with the problem-plagued tenure of former Broward Supervisor Miriam Oliphant, though she did not mention her by name.

Harold Ostrow, past president of the Voters Coalition, said Oliphant had no experience before becoming Broward elections supervisor and said Palm Beach County voters need to make sure that "whoever runs the office not be another Oliphant."

Each challenger pushed somewhat different issues, each an obvious or veiled criticism of LePore.

Glenn MacLean said he was concerned that results from the touch-screen voting machines "can be manipulated electronically without [leaving] any evidence." LePore said there were multiple safeguards to prevent tampering.

Whittey said people's constitutional right to vote was compromised with the rise in voting by mail because people have to pay for the postage themselves. LePore said people have plenty of options for free voting, including advance voting in her offices and at polling places on Election Day.

Anderson said public trust in the election process is being "insidiously eroded." That could be fixed, he said, by implementing a paper ballot backup for electronic voting machines, having a supervisor of elections who is a community leader, and education to encourage voter registration and turnout.

Even though the event was conducted in the Democratic Party stronghold of southwest Palm Beach County, the sponsoring Voters Coalition is a nonpartisan organization that endorses Democrats and Republicans.

Many of the largely Democratic audience of 100 surrounded LePore afterward to indicate support and tell her she had performed well.

Marvin Manning, president of the Century Village Democratic Club west of Boca Raton, supports Anderson but said LePore handled herself well. "She did very well."

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2905.