Florida Hopes to Get It Right in Primary Ballot 

 Sunday, August 29
By Michael Christie for Reuters

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida, which held up the results of the 2000 presidential election by more than a month, holds a primary this week that many regard as a test of the state's readiness to avoid another fiasco in November.
 The Aug. 31 primary election will pick candidates for President Bush's Republicans and the Democrats for federal, local, judicial, state and federal posts, including the hotly contested seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Bob Graham, which could determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.
 

But activists and analysts say most poll watchers will be focused on whether Florida can get it right this time, and carry out a ballot in which every vote counts.

"This (primary) is a preview of coming attractions or atrocities, whichever way you choose to look at it," said Robin Templeton of pressure group Right to Vote.

The 2000 presidential race in Florida was so close it descended into endless ballot recounts and lawsuits over what constituted a valid vote on punch card systems. It eventually fell to the U.S. Supreme Court to order a halt, and hand Bush a 537-vote victory in the state.

The Nov. 2 race for Florida's 27 electoral college votes between Bush and his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, is likely to be equally tight, according to polls.

Many of the state's counties have worked hard, and spent big bucks, to try to ensure a smooth election this year. Computer-based touch-screen voting machines have replaced punch cards in 15 of the state's most populous counties.

But problems remain despite assurances from Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, that the election will be smooth.

Civil rights groups were furious when it was revealed earlier this year that a list of felons banned from voting was tilted against African Americans, who tend to vote Democrat, and failed to include many Hispanics, who lean toward the Republicans.

More recently, they were alarmed at reports that armed state police interrogated and intimidated elderly African Americans in Orlando over allegations of ballot fraud, said Alma Gonzalez of the Voter Protection Coalition Round Table.

A RUSH FOR ABSENTEE BALLOTS

The touch-screen machines also got bad publicity because of problems in a 2002 gubernatorial primary and concerns about software bugs and possible manipulation.

The fact that there will be no hard-copy backups of touch-screen votes has further undermined public confidence and prompted a rush for paper absentee ballots.

"If they want a verifiable vote, they have to vote by absentee ballot," said Gonzalez.

Miami-Dade election officials have mailed off 49,299 absentee ballots compared with 17,228 before the 2000 primary, said spokesman Seth Kaplan.

Hillsborough, around the Gulf Coast city of Tampa, has mailed off 22,654 compared to 14,368 in 2000, said Sharon Smith, manager of the county's absentee department.

A recent survey by Quinnipiac University in Connecticut found that 43 percent of those opting to vote that way in Florida were doing so because they did not trust the system.

Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of State, said touch screens had been used in hundreds of elections in Florida since 2002. "So we are very optimistic for the election cycle of 2004," she said.

Douglas Jones, who teaches computer science at the University of Iowa, was called in by Miami-Dade to fix some glitches in its computers.

Although he remains opposed to the technology until it is accompanied by an auditable paper trail, Jones believes the machines will now do the job.

"On the other hand, the whole world is looking at Miami, so they may find problems. That means that even if it's the best election they ever run, we might not know it," he said.