In Florida, Early Voting Means an Early Return to Problems
By ABBY GOODNOUGH

New York Times  October 19, 2004

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Oct. 18 - Presidential voting in Florida began two weeks early on Monday, in an effort to avoid many of the problems that plagued Election Day 2000.

But like persistent ghosts, some of those problems immediately resurfaced: long lines, trouble verifying voter registration data and a sense among black voters that they were being unfairly treated.

Here in Duval County, the state's most populous, where suspicion still simmers after 27,000 votes were thrown out in 2000, mostly in black neighborhoods, the beleaguered elections supervisor abruptly resigned, citing health problems. The elections office here has been under fire for opening only one early-voting site.

Gov. Jeb Bush and Glenda Hood, his secretary of state, joined in the criticism last weekend - almost two weeks after black lawmakers and ministers here began complaining - and on Monday, the office announced that it would open at least two more sites by next week.

Florida is among roughly 30 states that now allow any registered voter to cast a ballot in person before Election Day, a practice that some states expanded after the disputed 2000 election. Proponents say it gives voters a chance to avoid the long waits common on Election Day and time to resolve last-minute registration problems and still allow people eventually to vote.

But lines were unavoidable in many parts of the state. Some areas, including Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg and Fort Lauderdale, had two- and three-hour waits.

Like a host at a jam-packed restaurant, Bob Cafazzo, an elections official in Pinellas County, noted voters' arrival times and handed them slips of paper. "Come back in two hours," he kept saying. "There are about 200 people in front of you."

Some, like Jean York of St. Petersburg, gave up and left.

"I'm going to wait and go back on another day when maybe it isn't so busy," said Ms. York, who described herself as supporter of Senator John Kerry who wanted to cast an early ballot to make sure it was counted.

Buddy Johnson, the elections supervisor in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, said turnout for the first day of early voting was much larger than early turnout for the Aug. 31 primary. At the end of the day, Mr. Johnson estimated that 3,850 of his county's roughly 620,000 voters had cast ballots.

The campaigns of both President Bush and Mr. Kerry are prodding those who can to vote early, either in person or by mail ballot, partly because of the huge number of new registrations. Experts said that by getting their bases to vote early the candidates could put their attention and resources into turning out undecided voters in the final days before Nov. 2.

About 20 states, including Florida, also unconditionally let voters mail in ballots before Election Day, according to the National Association of Secretaries of States. Elections offices in Florida and elsewhere have received record requests for mail-in ballots, partly because of suspicion about the electronic voting machines that many states, including Florida, now use.

Early voting, which also began Monday in Arkansas, Colorado and Texas, "is rooted in policy makers' looking at more creative ways to improve voter turnout," said Tim Storey, a senior fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures. But data on whether it actually increases turnout is inconclusive, he said, probably because early voting as a widespread phenomenon is still in its infant stages.

The major criticisms of early voting, Mr. Storey said, are that it dilutes the civic tradition of everyone voting on one all-important day and that important revelations about candidates sometimes arise in the final days of a campaign.

In Florida, voting stalled in at least three populous counties - Broward, Hillsborough and Orange - when the laptop computers used to verify voter information stopped connecting to a central database, said Alia Faraj, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Hood.

"You can't just crawl into a hole and say, 'Oh God, please work it out,' " said Brenda Snipes, the elections supervisor in Broward County, who told workers to confirm voter information by telephone after the malfunction brought voting at nine satellite locations to a standstill.

Ms. Snipes said that as of 3 p.m., 3,800 residents had cast ballots at the county's nine early-voting sites.

In Jacksonville, the Rev. Jesse Jackson led about 50 voters to the polls, where people sang "We Shall Overcome." In a nearby hotel, Ms. Hood sang "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" with members of the Jacksonville Rotary Club, to whom she listed improvements in the electoral system in a lunchtime speech.

"We must separate elections administration from political shenanigans," Ms. Hood told the group of business people. "We are seeing a lot of the latter right now."
 
Ms. Hood's office celebrated a State Supreme Court ruling on Monday that provisional ballots - which can be cast by voters whose names are missing from the rolls and which are counted only after the voter's registration is verified - can be cast only in a voter's home precinct. Labor unions had sued, saying voters should be able to cast provisional ballots anywhere in the state. Ms. Hood's office argued in court that such a system would be chaotic.

Ms. Hood said Duval County's elections supervisor, John Stafford, a Republican, resigned because of worsening health problems. Mr. Stafford has been on leave since a heart attack early this year; his deputy, Richard Carlberg, has run the office.

Asked why she had not ordered Mr. Stafford's office to plan more early-voting sites weeks ago, Ms. Hood said she had no authority to do so. Asked how the 11th-hour decision to open more sites came about, she said, "Minds were changed." She said Governor Bush, a Republican, would quickly appoint an interim supervisor.

Most Florida voters interviewed on Monday said they had come out early to beat the Election Day crowds, or because they would be too busy on Election Day, or because their curiosity got the better of them. Many said the process was smooth, though those held up by the computer problems left fed up.

"Why didn't they know it was going to happen?" said Anne Niblet, who was voting at the main Broward County Library. "I knew it was going to happen, and I'm 77 years old."

Abby Goodnough reported from Jacksonville for this article, and Jim Yardley from Broward County, Fla. Contributing reporting were Lynn Waddell from Pinellas County and Sara Kennedy from Hillsborough County.