Long lines plague first day of casting votes in Palm Beach County

By Diane C. Lade
Staff Writer  South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted October 19 2004

The lines were long. Democrats and Republicans were stuck standing together for hours, some outside in the sun. Tempers grew short.

It was a bad time for some voters in Palm Beach County on Monday, a historic day when Floridians for the first time could go to the polls early to cast their vote for president.

Some polling locations opened late, voters said, and others reported waiting as long as three hours before seeing a ballot. They complained that there weren't enough poll workers or voting machines. Another complaint: Too few laptop computers for clerks to immediately verify eligibility.

"So, in other words, it's a fiasco," said voter Arnold Glick. He wanted to vote on Monday at the Southwest Regional Public Library west of Boca Raton because he is having spinal surgery this week and isn't likely to be able to walk by Election Day.

But Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore said it was equally tough for county election clerks, who are dealing with the new early voting process while being inundated by voters who have been whipped into a frenzy by the election's high political stakes.

"I've been a supervisor for 33 years and this is the worst I've ever seen it," said LePore, who had poll workers threatening to quit Monday because of rude and nasty constituents. "We are going to be doing this for two weeks. But everyone had to show up on the first day, and then complained because they had to stand in line."

LePore had no final count of how many voters cast ballots in eight Palm Beach County early voting locations, which were scheduled to open as early as 8:30 a.m. and close as late as 7 p.m. These polling places will be operating until Nov. 1.

Both Democratic and Republican organizers well aware of the neck-and-neck presidential race have been pushing early voting for weeks as a way to get their constituents to the polls. They billed it as a way to avoid potentially long lines at the polls on Election Day, Nov. 2.

So many of those who showed up bright and early Monday were angry that didn't prove true.

"This is the most screwed up thing since 2000," fumed retiree Frank Golombek, almost two and a half hours after the poll was to have opened at the county library west of Delray Beach. Like some others, he stormed out without voting.

An elections clerk at the library west of Boca Raton acknowledged the long line and tried to persuade some voters to return later that day or during the week. When she tried to tell the crowd it wasn't a "do or die" priority that they cast a ballot Monday because early voting lasts 15 days, those in line began yelling.

"It is do or die. ... Some of us are only able to vote today!" said Elaine Flans, 72, who lives west of Boca Raton. "I'm very passionate about the election. I want my vote to count."

At the county's Democratic Party headquarters, Chairwoman Carol Ann Loehndorf said the phone lines were jammed all day with complaints, most of them about the sites near Delray Beach and Boca Raton.

"They're telling us that they can't get through to the supervisor of elections office, so we're trying to answer their questions the best we can," said Loehndorf, who has ordered four more phone lines for the office.

A major glitch was that each location had only one telephone line for the laptop computers being used to check the voters' registration. That was necessary because voters from any precinct can go to any of the early-voting sites. Reva Iseman, 63, who waited almost three hours at the Delray Beach-area library, said there was a log jam at the laptop while three of the six electronic voting machines sat vacant.

Gerald Richman, county chairman of the Kerry-Edwards legal team with 150 volunteer attorneys, said his group is working with LePore's office to install more telephone lines, as well as add more voting machines and staff.

"They have told us that if the need was there, they would add them. We are asking them to do it. The need is there," said Richman, an attorney from West Palm Beach. "The problem was lack of advance planning."

LePore, however, said she can't add more laptops because her main computer system can only handle one line per location. More electronic voting machines or extra clerks would be pointless.

"Everything is staying the way it is," said LePore, who brought in 150 extra employees to deal with early voting and process the 80,000 absentee ballots mailed last week. She is printing an extra 20,000 voter certificates that must be signed by anyone who votes early.

State Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and County Commissioner Burt Aaronson said they were working with county administrators to see if they could get larger rooms in the two libraries. The lines at both locations, compromised predominately of senior citizens and including some supported by walkers, stretched more than 100 people long.

Those at the library west of Delray Beach had to stand in the sun. Two young Democratic Party volunteers showed up about 2:30 p.m. with cases of cold bottled water, which they passed out while calling, "Compliments of the Kerry campaign!"

There was a similar line at the main election supervisor's office in West Palm Beach, where many voters had been taken by van from the Century Village retirement community. Two more voting machines were added later in the day to the 11 already there.

Officials at the Florida Division of Elections reported hearing only about minor glitches statewide Monday.

Jenny Nash, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood, said Broward and Hillsborough counties had problems with laptops being able to communicate with the supervisor of elections offices. But Nash said poll workers switched to verifying eligibility with the county's supervisor of elections office over the telephone.

"There is no problem with the voting systems all are working just as they should. The voters of Florida should have complete confidence in the election process," Nash said.

At 9 of the 14 sites in Broward County, poll workers were unable to pull up the voter database. Lines snaked outside as election workers stared at blank computer screens.

For hours, poll workers sat patiently on the other end of the phone line, slowly spelling last names and double-checking addresses. The county's Information Technology department was asked step in to remedy the problem, said Deputy Elections Supervisor Gisela Salas.