Officials debate Florida's preparation

BY JOHN KENNEDY

The Orlando Sentinel

 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - (KRT) - Glenda Hood's main mission when she became Florida's secretary of state last year was to take control of a flawed election system that became a national joke in the 2000 presidential race.

The former Orlando mayor was charged with fixing the mess and preparing Florida for Election Day 2004.

For months, Hood has insisted everything is fine. But Saturday, that rosy outlook ran headlong into a fiasco.

Hood's critics say her retreat after steadfastly defending the "potential felons" voter list is only one of many warning signs that Florida may not be ready, after all. The state also faces lawsuits challenging new touch-screen voting machines, general distrust among black voters who fear disenfranchisement, and polls suggesting Florida may again be the scene of a presidential election too close to call.

At the epicenter is Hood, the former Oak Ridge High School cheerleader who ran city government from 1992 to 2002 with a tireless intensity, an unflagging smile and a penchant for keeping her chin up in the face of failed initiatives. Now she is campaigning again - trying to convince the world that the state's election system has dramatically improved.

"We know the world is watching Florida, and we welcome the attention because we know we are doing the right things," Hood said. "Everything with the election system has changed. What happened in 2000 could not happen again."

But others scoff at Hood's certainty, saying her trademark optimism borders on outright denial.

"Mrs. Hood's office has adopted a bunker mentality," said U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton. "She says the machines will work, period. And the last time we had anyone with such an infallible belief in machines was before there was the Titanic."

Wexler earlier this year sued state officials demanding that new touch-screen voting machines used in 15 Florida counties provide a paper record to allow for hand recounts. Although Wexler's suit was dismissed by a federal court, a coalition of civil-rights and voting-reform groups last week sued to overturn a state rule that excludes touch screens from manual recounts.

"What are we going to do if there's a close race?" Wexler said. "The voting records of these machines will have disappeared in cyberspace."

The fiery rhetoric sounds familiar, a haunting echo of the 2000 election.

George W. Bush's 537-vote margin of victory over Democrat Al Gore was not determined in Florida until the U.S. Supreme Court intervened and ended 36 days of legal challenges that exposed problems with voting machines, ballots, certification deadlines, recount rules and poll-worker training.

Lawyers filed suit throughout the state, and demonstrations by dueling Bush and Gore supporters jammed the grounds of the Capitol during most of the deadlock. The election ultimately was decided by a Bush margin of victory of 0.009 percent.

"There was no room for error, and yet there were errors," concluded an elections task force established by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Lawmakers spent the next two years crafting reforms that dramatically overhauled the system. Most notably, punch-card machines were outlawed, ending the prospect of election officials poring over thousands of ballots trying to detect a voter's intent based on a hanging, pregnant or dimpled chad.

Computer touch screens have been deployed in 15 counties, including Lake and Sumter, and the remaining 52 use optical scanners. New provisional ballots will allow Floridians to vote even if their eligibility cannot be determined on Election Day, subject to further review.

Ballot style has been standardized. And new rules have been adopted governing recounts, overseas voting, absentees and the deadline for election certification - all bitterly contested issues during the 2000 election.

"Of course there are scars remaining from 2000," said U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, a Sarasota Republican who was Florida secretary of state during that year's election.

Democrats demonized Harris for certifying the state for Bush, effectively handing him the presidency. But Harris' role also has made her one of the most sought-after speakers at Republican events nationwide.

Hood agrees that a cloud still hovers over Florida's voting system, and to quell talk of another election debacle, she has focused her office on reaching out to voters.

Florida is steering unprecedented money and attention toward registering and educating potential voters - with a $3.2 million effort under way.

The campaign already is airing television ads that feature Hood. It also includes voter sign-ups and teaching sessions using touch-screen and optical-scanning voting equipment.

The state earlier sponsored a register-at-work week, and this weekend began signing up voters at churches and synagogues. Another outreach is planned at high schools, colleges and universities in September.

"The system is absolutely different," Harris said. "It is much better. But across the country, there are still those who want to instill fear and partisan distrust."

In Orlando, Hood had a reputation for saying everything was OK - and for having a defensive streak when challenged. But she became one of Orlando's most durable leaders and the first female mayor in a city largely ruled throughout its history by an entrenched male political network.

"As mayor, and now perhaps as secretary of state, I think one of her challenges really is in confronting facts as they really are, not as she wants them to be," said Don Ammerman, who served 10 years with Hood on the Orlando City Council and frequently sparred with her. "She loves great news and really doesn't want to handle the bad stuff. We may be seeing that again with these questions about elections. You see, image is very important to her."

True to form, Hood put a positive spin Saturday on the scrapping of the felon voter list.

"This has added public confidence," she said from the porch of her home on Lake Lancaster. "We do lead the nation in election reform. We've brought in the best technology. And our elections supervisors are giving voters the benefit of the doubt."

During her time in City Hall, Hood kept taxes low and improved city neighborhoods, but she failed to win support for key priorities such as light rail, a downtown performing-arts center and a sales-tax increase to build roads and schools. A $14 million budget deficit haunted her final days as mayor.

For Hood, Tallahassee represented a fresh challenge. So she seized the opportunity when Gov. Bush in December 2002 made her the first political appointment of his second term.

Within weeks of being named secretary by Bush, Hood made a point of attending an elections supervisors' meeting in the Gulf Coast resort town of Crystal River and began working the crowd.

Many of those in the elections community give Hood high marks for paying more attention to their issues than Harris, who steered the secretary's office toward international trade and development, roles Bush now retains for himself.

"I think Glenda is getting a bad rap," said Orange County Elections Supervisor Bill Cowles, a Democrat who has known Hood for more than 25 years. "She works hard, and she has reached out to the supervisors and is willing to listen."

But others said Hood has added fuel to problems by being slow to stamp out potential hot spots.

Last month, Ed Kast, the state's director of elections, abruptly resigned, saying only that he wanted a change of pace. His departure was interpreted by many as another sign of dwindling confidence in the election system, but Hood did not step forward to quash such concerns.

The potential-felon voter list was announced in May by Hood's office in an e-mail and news release, which some critics saw as a toneless response to an issue that had drawn intense scrutiny in the 2000 election, when thousands of voters were wrongly barred from casting ballots.

A lawsuit by CNN and other media outlets eventually forced wide release of the list, which a computer analysis by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Orlando Sentinel showed included more than 2,000 names of felons whose voting rights have been restored. The final blow came after the state acknowledged Saturday that the list failed to include Hispanics who may be felons.

"I think in Glenda Hood's office, there are too many people who start out on the defensive," said Pat Hollarn, the Okaloosa County elections supervisor who, like Hood, is a Republican. "They're well-intentioned. But when situations develop, they want to stay out of sight. They are not handling it right."

Faced with such criticism, Hood does a slow burn.

"I think it's unfortunate that there will always be those who want to undermine the confidence people have in their government by throwing around misinformation," Hood said.

Like some kind of electoral Bermuda Triangle, Florida seems to generate Election Day problems.

In 2002, primary-day voters in Miami-Dade and Broward counties faced delays caused by poorly trained poll workers struggling to get new touch-screen machines ready to accept votes, leading to a weeklong contest of results in the Democratic race for governor.

Last year, Miami-Dade officials also discovered a software flaw that has triggered questions about the accuracy of the electronic record kept on touch screens in 11 counties, including Lake and Sumter, using machines made by Election Systems & Software.

A Hood spokeswoman later dismissed the flaw as "minor technical hiccups" that can be fixed.

In January, more concerns were prompted in a state House race in Broward County that was the only contest on the ballot. Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff won a 12-vote victory, even as 137 ballots were cast without the machines' registering a vote.

"Unfortunately, there's been the perception that an election can be held that is perfect," said Jim Smith, a former secretary of state who replaced Harris in 2002 as elections chief. "But we're talking humans and machines. You know it's not going to be perfect."

Add to that the uncertainty of a neck-and-neck presidential race. Florida this year is one of the key battleground states, where the struggle between President Bush and John Kerry is expected to prove fiercest.

Though Harris in 2000 drew heat for serving as co-chairman of George W. Bush's Florida campaign, Hood will play no such role this year. Still, she reports to the president's brother.

"If there's a problem, it's obvious that's going to raise the specter that the governor's office is interfering with the election," said Ion Sancho, Leon County elections supervisor, a former Democrat who switched his registration to nonpartisan last year.

Hood said she consulted with the governor in making the decision to scrap the felon list. But otherwise, Hood says the governor has kept his distance - and she plans to keep it that way.

"He is not involved in this office, but we share the same goal," Hood said. "We are looking forward to holding successful elections. And it's important that the process is free of even the hint of politics."