Techs' help not sought in vote wait
Computer experts say some lines could move faster today.

By Jane Musgrave

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, October 21, 2004

A communication breakdown may be to blame for delays that have forced hundreds of people to wait in line for hours this week to cast early votes in the presidential election.

Palm Beach County computer officials said Wednesday they could have gotten the lines moving faster if Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore had merely asked for help.
 High-speed computer lines that would speed the molasses-like early voting process are readily available at two county libraries where voters have waited in line for as long as five hours, said Steve Bordelon, director of the county office of Information Systems Services.

However, LePore said, she talked to county officials at least a month ago and was told that because her computer system is separate from the county's, elections workers had to use conventional phone lines to access voter registration records from early voting locations.

"As I understand it, and I'm no expert, they have to go through several fire walls before they could make it through," she said. "But if that's the case, OK. We all want to work together."

Bordelon said his office never was asked for help.

"That's the history of our dealing with that department," he said.

After reading newspaper accounts of logjams that left voters fuming, his technology chief dispatched technicians Wednesday to branch libraries on West Atlantic Avenue in suburban Delray Beach and on Palmetto Park Road west of Boca Raton, where problems have been most severe since the state's first widespread use of early voting began Monday.

With long lines of people waiting, they didn't want to interrupt voting to spend roughly an hour making the fix, said Bob Zelazny, director of technical infrastructure for the county. But if LePore agrees to the plan, he said the high-tech lines could be readied early today to move people through the process faster when the polls open at 9 a.m.

"We just need to put the techs out there to rewire the rooms," he said.

2,500 early voters a day

LePore spent the day in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom defending her office against a suit U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler filed challenging what he calls flaws in the county's electronic voting system. She said she couldn't reach Zelazny when she returned to her office about 6 p.m.

She said she planned to put an additional person at each of the libraries today to check voter registration in hopes of getting lines moving.

Roughly 2,500 people a day are turning up at the eight locations handling early voting. Ironically, many of them are doing so to beat the expected crush of voters on Nov. 2.

Bordelon said he became interested in solving the problem after reading that LePore blamed the early voting gridlock on technology.

Before people can vote, elections workers have to check to make sure they are registered. Armed with laptop computers, one worker at each of the five auxiliary locations has been accessing the records by dialing into the supervisor's main computer on regular phone lines.

If she switched to high-speed lines, checks could be made three to five times quicker and the people could move through the process faster, Zelazny said. Also, more laptops could be used at each location.

An added bonus: Taxpayers wouldn't have to pay hefty long-distance charges for keeping phone lines open all day at the two polling places in the southern part of the county.

"It's that verification process that's the narrow end of the funnel," Zelazny said.

Zelazny said the high-speed lines could have been installed at all five auxiliary sites, including ones at the recreation center in Jupiter, the village hall in Royal Palm Beach and Belle Glade City Hall.

Unfortunately, he said, because the locations in Jupiter, Royal Palm Beach and Belle Glade aren't in county buildings, at least 30 days are needed to order extra phone lines from BellSouth.

High-speed lines already are available at the three other early voting locations, in LePore's satellite offices in Palm Beach Gardens, suburban West Palm Beach and Delray Beach.

However, even at those locations, lines have sometimes been long, particularly at the elections office in the south county governmental complex in Delray.

Some of that is directly linked to voters. On Tuesday, for instance, one 96-year-old woman took more than 30 minutes to vote.

Klein: Planning poor

With eight constitutional amendments, the presidential election and the U.S. Senate race to decide, people should read the ballot before going into vote so they won't tie up machines, LePore said.

LePore's detractors said they can't understand why steps to speed the process weren't taken months ago. State lawmakers approved early voting in the spring.

"Was there any question in your mind that there was going to be large crowds for early voting?" said state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach. "Before the election, even she said she expected 25 percent of the vote would be during early voting and absentee voting."

Both President Bush and his Democratic challenger, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, have urged people to take advantage of early voting.

Problems that have turned early voting into an endurance contest for many voters don't end with the lack of high-speed lines, Klein said.

After learning that LePore planned to set up voting machines in small rooms at both south county libraries, he contacted county officials who agreed to make larger rooms available.

"We solved the problem on Saturday. They said, 'OK,' " Klein said. "It's Wednesday now. Why haven't you done it?"

LePore said the rooms weren't available.

On Wednesday, when elections workers showed up to open the polling place at the branch library west of Delray Beach, some 70 book club members joined the mass of people waiting in line to vote.

"It was a mess," she said.