Gov. Bush orders election emergency in 10 counties

Gov. Jeb Bush declared an 'election emergency' to give counties hit by Hurricane Charley more flexibility in conducting the Aug. 31 state primary.

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS in Miami Herald   20 August 2004

TALLAHASSEE - With election equipment potentially damaged by Hurricane Charley and poll workers hard to find, Gov. Jeb Bush declared an election emergency Thursday in 10 counties. The move gives state election officials power to modify procedures so the Aug. 31 primary can be conducted.

In Charlotte County, where the devastation was greatest, early voting will begin today with paper and pencils, rather than touch-screen voting machines, for 12 hours a day until the day before the election.

On election day, officials will create seven ''super precincts'' in the most ravaged parts of the county Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte and truck in generators to supply electricity.

`DOING ALL WE CAN'

In Hardee County, where the supervisor of elections died in his sleep after removing debris from his home, supervisors from other counties including former Miami-Dade Supervisor David Leahy have stepped in to help train poll workers and offer other assistance.

And, throughout the region, thousands of National Guard troops will be able to to receive ballots from their home counties by fax or e-mail and will be allowed to fax them back to vote.

''We're doing all we can to give voters the opportunity to be able to cast their ballots, either in early voting or the precinct,'' said Philinda Young, the former Lee County supervisor who is assisting in Charlotte County.

Young drove all night Sunday from her retirement home in Georgia to help her longtime friend, Charlotte County Supervisor of Elections Judy Anderson.

VOTING MADE EASIER

The governor's order will help elections officials make primary day voting easier for many affected by the hurricane, Young said, but not for all. ''In Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, they don't have homes anymore, and they've probably gone somewhere else,'' she said.

``If we have a 20 percent turnout in those two areas I will be surprised. Voting is very important, but when your lives are shattered like some of these lives have been, it's hard to do.''

The governor's order allows Secretary of State Glenda Hood ''to modify, amend or suspend'' any election-related deadlines and rules until Sept. 15 for Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee, Highlands, Lee, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole and Volusia counties.

Hood may now postpone deadlines for campaign treasury filings and financial reports, alter polling places and use temporary buildings and tents as polling sites, said Bill Cowles, Orange County supervisor of elections.

''We're relaxing the rules,'' he said, to avoid being ``constrained to deadlines that are unrealistic now.''

Cowles said his county is ''in good shape,'' but the harder hit areas must recruit and train poll workers, test equipment, and set up voter-registration lists in less than ideal situations.

Elections officials in counties that escaped the storm are helping, as well as workers from the voting equipments' companies and the state division of elections.

Two of the affected counties Charlotte and Lee use iVotronic touch-screen machines, the same equipment as Miami-Dade.

COMPANY HELPING

The manufacturer, Election Systems & Software, has sent extra personnel to ''help the county stage and test the equipment,'' said Becky Vollmer, an ES&S spokeswoman.

Charlotte County is expected to have electricity by Aug. 29, Young said. But to be safe, the county is having generators shipped for 30 touch-screen machines at each of the super precincts.

But, as an incoming storm darkened her office and a crack in the roof leaked, Young noted that finding a site to house the super precincts won't be easy:

``We're having a hard time finding a building large enough and a building that's left standing.'