GOP sorry for sending flier

BY GARY FINEOUT

TALLAHASSEE - The Republican Party of Florida apologized Thursday for sending out a flier over the weekend to some Miami-Dade County Republicans that raised questions about the accuracy of touch-screen machines.

Featuring a smiling picture of President Bush flashing a thumbs-up, the flier urged Republicans living in south and west Miami-Dade County to order an absentee ballot to ``make sure your vote counts.''

''The liberal Democrats have already begun their attacks and the new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount,'' reads the flier. ``Make sure your vote counts, order your absentee ballot today.''

The flier directly contradicts statements from Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who have spent weeks trying to reassure Florida voters that the new touch-screen machines used in 15 counties will work for the upcoming elections.

Bush has even assailed critics of the machines as being partisans working to stir up voters against his older brother and Republicans.

Joseph Agostini, a spokesman for the state GOP, said the party regretted sending out the flier, first reported Thursday in The St. Petersburg Times.

''The recent absentee request ballot flier in no way is meant to shake the confidence of voters in Florida's electoral process,'' said Agostini. ``The Republican Party of Florida encourages all Floridians to exercise their right to vote, whether by absentee ballot or in person. With this in mind, we regret that the language contained in the absentee ballot request was unclear in this regard.''

Agostini insisted that the party had not sent out a similar flier in other parts of the state.

BUSH NOT PLEASED

A spokeswoman for Bush said that the governor did not learn about the flier until Wednesday, when a reporter e-mailed him a question about it. Spokeswoman Jill Bratina said that Bush did not approve of the message.

''The governor doesn't support any message that would undermine the credibility of machines that have been proven to work,'' Bratina said. ``We have had hundreds of successful elections on those machines. They work, and voters should have confidence in them.''

But civil rights groups who have been questioning how well touch-screen machines will work attacked Gov. Bush and the Republicans for ''hypocrisy.'' The governor and the division of elections have refused to order an independent audit of the machines. The department has also adopted a rule that prohibits a manual recount on touch-screen machines, which will be used in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and 12 other counties.

This past week, Miami-Dade County election supervisors acknowledged they lost audit logs from the 2002 gubernatorial primary due to two computer crashes and that there is now no record from that election.

''The hypocrisy just digs deep,'' said Sharon Lettman Pacheco of the People for the American Way Foundation, one of the groups suing to overturn the manual recount rule. ``It doesn't pass the smell test.''

The flier was mailed to voters living in House District 119, which features an Aug. 31 Republican primary between incumbent Rep. Juan Zapata of Miami and Frank Artiles of Palmetto Bay. The Republican Party is supporting Zapata against Artiles, who narrowly lost to Zapata two years ago.

Zapata says he didn't see the message on the flier before it was mailed out. But he said it was done in response to a flier that the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida sent out urging people to vote absentee and which featured a picture of President Bush.

Zapata said he got calls from people confused by the Miccosukee flier. The tribe has given Artiles financial support.

`LOCAL RESPONSE'

''I don't know what the big deal is,'' said Zapata. ``It was a local response to a local situation.''

The tribe did not return The Herald's calls Thursday.

Zapata insisted that he has confidence in the touch-screen machines, although he said the media attention about them may scare some voters.

''I am confident about the machines,'' said Zapata. ``I don't share everybody's doomsday scenario.''