Florida poll workers getting unprecedented lessons on how to master disasters

By Luis F. Perez
Staff Writer South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted August 7 2004

Florida election officials are preparing poll workers like never before, talking to them about white-powder incidents and trench-coat scenarios that were unthinkable just a few years ago.

It's a surreal run-up to the elections: A combination of a controversial filmmaker, terrorist threats, voting machine opponents and computer hackers are pushing elections officials to think like troublemakers as they get ready. All that comes on top of Florida's 2000 presidential debacle and in the midst of a highly polarized electorate.

Some elections chiefs are preparing for a perfect storm of election troubles, any one of which could disrupt balloting that's already under an intense national spotlight.

"I think this election is an election like no other because we are under such scrutiny in the state of Florida," said Kathy Kent, spokesperson for the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.

Palm Beach County elections supervisor Theresa LePore met this week with sheriff's officials to work on a security plan. She also has met with other law enforcement agencies and is training poll workers to be more aware of their surroundings.

In Broward County, elections officials have been meeting with the Sheriff's Office on a daily basis, said Gisela Salas, deputy supervisor of elections.

While election officials say there is no specific threat, Internet sites and media reports have put everyone on notice about the potential for trouble.

On Aug. 28, filmmaker Michael Moore told the world he is bringing cameras to Florida in November to make sure there's a "huge spotlight" on the state. A day later, Harvard University-affiliated computer scientist and electronic voting machine critic Rebecca Mercuri encouraged computer hackers at a conference to test whether it's possible to rig an election.

And Kent, who is Sarasota County's elections chief, said her colleagues across the state are aware of Web sites encouraging activists to infiltrate the ranks of poll workers to report back to partisan groups.

Still, LePore said she doesn't have the resources to do background checks on poll workers. However, 90 percent of Palm Beach County's poll workers have staffed precincts in the past, she said. There will be 5,000 people working the polls Aug. 31 and 5,600 on Nov. 2.

Workers are being asked to sign documents stating they've gotten training and a "loyalty oath" vowing they'll avoid partisan activities at the polls, LePore said. If election officials feel someone shouldn't be a poll worker as they go through the training, they would take care of the situation then, Salas said.

Poll workers are being asked to be vigilant for unusual activity, such as someone walking into a polling place wearing a trench coat at the end of August, LePore said. Trainers also are talking to workers about what to do in different scenarios, such as if someone spread white powder at the polls.

Election officials must balance the need for security with the desire to avoid a hostile environment for poll workers or voters. They don't want uniformed police officers in polling places or marked cars because that could be intimidating for some, LePore said.

Mercuri said Friday that she challenged voting machine manufacturers who brag that no one can break into their machines to bring them to a Las Vegas hackers' convention.

"In no way were we trying to say, `Break into the voting system,'" she said.

Alfie Charles, a spokesman for Sequoia Voting Systems, which makes electronic voting machines for Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Indian River and Pinellas counties, said his company's stand-alone machines have no keyboard access or Internet connection.

"So there's no way for a coordinated attack to go after all of the machines at one time," Charles said. That's one of the benefits of the decentralized system. And if there was an attack, each machine automatically creates a backup copy of all ballots, he said.

Charles and other elections officials said the most important line of defense against any problem is public vigilance.

Bev Harris, author of Black Box Voting: Ballot-Tampering in the 21st Century, runs an election watchdog Web site, www.blackboxvote.org. Poll workers around the country are members of her organization and have been asked to report any procedural problems, she said.

But Harris emphasized that the workers are supposed to fulfill their polling obligations first and not break any laws. She said she knows of at least 10 other election watchdog groups doing the same thing.

In most cases, workers won't report problems until after Election Day. That will happen only if local officials don't address the problem, Harris said.

Still, that doesn't make election officials feel any better.

"I just think that our country has not been the same since the 2000 elections," Kent said. "And it has not been the same since [Sept. 11, 2001]."