Watchdogs of every stripe prepare to check Fla. vote

Tim O'Meilia
Saturday, August 7, 2004

Four years and people haven't forgotten yet.

Palm Beach County, land of the hanging chad, the butterfly ballot and the uncounted recount.

Expand that idea to Florida: state of non-felon purge lists, paperless voting and lost election results (no, wait, Miami-Dade County found them after all).

It's no wonder a plague of lawyers will infest local voting places come Nov. 2 and van-loads of do-gooders are being recruited to rumble south to help us poor schlubs in Florida get it right this time. As if their chads don't hang.

Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson this week asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Anan to send official U.N. observers to monitor the voting in Florida. After that, they can fly to Iraq and oversee the elections there.

Filmmaker Michael Moore, who made Fahrenheit 9/11, has vowed to bring his cameras he has only three to the state. "We will put a huge spotlight on them. They will not get away with it this time," he told Florida delegates to the Democratic convention.

Even a long-distance telephone carrier, Working Assets, sent an e-mail to its Florida customers asking for volunteers to help solve Election Day problems.

High-turnout precincts could be more crowded than the early-bird special at Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House. Here's a partial guest list: Republican Party lawyer, Democratic Party lawyer, Kerry lawyer, Bush lawyer. In fact, every candidate on the ballot is entitled to have poll watchers inside each precinct.

Each poll watcher must be certified by the candidate or party. Names must be submitted to the elections office two weeks before the voting so badges can be issued.

Wide lawyer recruitment

Although no one has registered yet, Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore expects an onslaught "just from what I'm hearing through the grapevine."

"I guess the courts will be shut down for the day," she said jokingly.

Here's why: The Kerry campaign is recruiting probate, real estate and lawyers of every stripe to monitor high-interest precincts around the state. Miami lawyer Steve Zack, Kerry's legal point man in Florida, signed up 100 at the convention and said more call every day, including former state Attorney General Bob Butterworth and lawyer Roy Black and out-of-state attorneys.

Imagine finding Janet Reno's little red truck parked outside your precinct on Election Day and the former U.S. attorney general prowling about inside, alert to any voting irregularities.

They'll get a crash course in election law. What will they look for? "That's like asking (Miami Dolphins) Coach Dave Wannstedt what plays he's going to call on Sunday," Zack said. "Hopefully, we won't be needed."

The Republican National Lawyers Association sponsored a two-day boot camp in Milwaukee to train lawyers in the intricacies of election law. The Bush-Cheney campaign plans to man 30,000 precincts nationwide.

"We have reached out to the DNC (Democratic National Committee) twice in an effort to create bipartisan teams to address voting concerns," said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Lindsay Taylor. "They have resisted."

It's not just a partisan issue. People for the American Way, a liberal nonpartisan group, is organizing Election Protection to recruit volunteers in 17 states to ensure the integrity of the vote.

"Mainly, people want to go to where there is a history of voter disruption and voter disenfranchisement," said Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way. "There's no question the eyes of the nation and the world will be focused on Florida."

It's too early to say how many folks will trek south, Neas said, but they'll be deployed outside certain precincts in special T-shirts, handing out voter bill of rights fliers and advice, including where to get legal relief, if necessary.

"The glare of the public spotlight is the best incentive to do things right," he said.

Another nonpartisan group, the conservative Judicial Watch, hasn't made final plans but "plans to be on the ground in Florida in 2004," said President Tom Fitton. At the least, it will have a hot line for people with complaints. The group engaged in a massive effort to examine all the undervotes after the 2000 election.

"Let 'em come down. We'll kick them all out, Moore included," LePore laughingly said of any attempts by anyone except lawful poll watchers to be inside the precincts. By law, everyone else must be at least 50 feet from the door of the building.

Proliferation of problems

Since 2000, Florida has only added to the alarm over voting procedures. The paperless touch-screen system is under fire, with both Democrats and Republicans urging voters to cast absentee ballots to make sure their votes are counted.

The state's felon purge list has been discredited, then discarded. Miami-Dade elections officials lost the 2002 gubernatorial primary results but found a backup disk days later. A political consultant in Polk County stole a laptop from the elections office in hopes of gaining an edge for his client.

No wonder Jesse Jackson suggested at the Democratic convention that someone should "get some yellow tape and put it around the whole state and say it is a crime scene."

Perhaps the supreme insult comes from the Democratic voter registrar in Benton, Tenn., pop. 1,100. Police there arrested two Republican election commissioners last week who wrestled a primary ballot box away from her and put their own padlock on it.

"They talk like the election has been stolen and all that. They are living in the 1940s," said registrar Sula Jenkins. "Things like that don't happen anymore, except in Florida."