LePore not good choice, but she's the only choice

By Palm Beach Post Endorsement

Saturday, August 14, 2004

If "None of the Above" appeared on ballots in Florida this year, the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections race would tempt many voters to choose it.

Theresa LePore, the incumbent, needs no introduction. If she had a credible challenger, it would please The Post greatly to endorse that person. Unfortunately, Ms. LePore's only opponent in the Aug. 31 nonpartisan primary that will decide who gets the office is the unqualified Arthur Anderson, forcing us to reluctantly endorse Ms. LePore.

It is bad enough that Dr. Anderson, a former two-term school board member who teaches education at Florida Atlantic University, has no experience with what everyone now understands is the complex business of running elections and that he admits that he is "not a techie" in a time of touch-screen machines. But Dr. Anderson also has a history of failing to pay taxes and of not keeping his personal or campaign finances in order. Dr. Anderson is the stalking horse for Democrats who want revenge on Ms. LePore for the 2000 election.
 

Reporting by this newspaper after that election revealed, among other things, that because Ms. LePore didn't delegate responsibility, she tried to do too much herself. Voters got the Butterfly Ballot because Ms. LePore thought she didn't need to consult other supervisors. Voters got chaos at the polls because Ms. LePore didn't have enough staff or phone lines to deal with questions about eligibility. Voters in minority neighborhoods got inferior punch-card machines because Ms. LePore hadn't cared enough to address the problem.

These days, Ms. LePore says she has hired a chief deputy. She says pollworkers will have cell phones and will get voters prompt answers. She says all precincts will have laptop computers with voter information d two days before the election. Yet this year, Ms. LePore also shipped out about 22,000 absentee ballots that have incorrect instructions.

So why endorse Ms. LePore? Because in 2000 and this year she rejected the state's flawed list of felons who supposedly are ineligible to vote. Because she advocated Sequoia touch-screen machines, which have performed better than a competitor's, and got them running. Because she is correct that those machines can't have printers unless the state authorizes them, which the state hasn't done. And because she has 33 years of experience, while Dr. Anderson has none.

Somewhere along the way, Ms. LePore forgot that she is supposed to advocate for voters, not whine about them. Now she must appeal to those same voters' best instinct — civic responsibility over revenge — to keep her job.