Passion and Election Disputes on Rise in Florida
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and ABBY GOODNOUGH  New York Times

Published: October 28, 2004

 

KENDALL, Fla., Oct. 27 - It is as if the presidential election of 2000 never ended here.

Six days before Election Day, Florida is again struggling with questions about potential voting irregularities, from complaints about missing absentee ballots in Broward County and accusations of voter suppression in minority neighborhoods to concerns about new touch-screen voting machines. Floridians have been standing for as long as three hours to cast early votes in the presidential race, testimony to the unresolved passions of the election of 2000. Interest is so intense that analysts predict that a staggering 75 percent of Florida voters will cast ballots by the time polls close Tuesday evening.
The disappearance of absentee ballots only fed suspicion among Democrats already distrustful of a state government controlled by President Bush's brother Gov. Jeb Bush, with pollsters saying Floridians are already concerned that their votes will not be counted.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Wednesday that it found no foul play after investigating widespread complaints of missing absentee ballots in Broward County. But questions remained about where the ballots had gone and whether the intended recipients would be able to vote.

The atmosphere here is not as toxic as in 2000, and neither party expects anything approaching the bitter 36-day stalemate that gripped this state that year. Still, Democrats and their supporters have already filed 11 lawsuits alleging various electoral violations, according to a count kept by Republicans. And both sides are bracing for more lawsuits, with most polls showing Florida to be in a dead heat.

"This feels more like the recount," Mindy Tucker Fletcher, a senior Republican strategist who was here in 2000, said on Wednesday. "I don't take phone calls from reporters on issues. I take phone from reporters on missing absentee ballots, or Democrat charges about suppressing the black vote. I rarely take phone calls about the president and education."

Nearly every day in the last two weeks, the president or a former president, presidential candidate or vice-presidential candidate, has touched down in Florida, drawing huge crowds whose passion and rage leave little doubt that the outcome here this time could prove just as pivotal, and just as corrosively inconclusive, as four years ago.

With Mr. Bush and Senator John Kerry coming back here this weekend - their running mates campaigned in Florida on Wednesday - this state has assumed its place as the prime battleground of the election and a template for the unease rippling across the country as it awaits Tuesday's balloting.

"When I came here this morning, I felt like beginning by saying, 'Now where were we again?' " Al Gore, who saw his hopes for the presidency dashed here in 2000, said wryly at a rally in Coconut Creek in Broward County the other afternoon. "Four years seems like four hours because we are in the same struggle for our country's future."

Bill Clinton, casting an eye on a crowd that filled a city block in Miami the next night, said: "Remember: we won this state the last two times; the last time they didn't count it. We can win it again."

Mr. Clinton's huge audience responded with outstretched hands and cheers. And the intensity of feeling is red hot on both sides of the political divide.

"Bush is a liar," Gene Conrad, a 65-year-old teacher from Jupiter, said after hearing Mr. Kerry deliver a speech on religion the other day. "He lied us into war. And I cannot vote for anyone who is dumber than I am."

Across the state in Fort Myers, Bobbie Golfes, the manager of a county association, said: "John Kerry is not a statesman. He doesn't have America at heart. I have a grandson who is a marine, and I am proud to have him serve under George Bush. I do not feel that way about John Kerry."

Though several South Florida news organizations reported on Tuesday and Wednesday that tens of thousands of voters had not yet received absentee ballots that the Broward County elections office had sent them several weeks ago, Brenda Snipes, the county elections supervisor, said Wednesday night that the number was much smaller.

Ms. Snipes said the office had received numerous complaints from people whose ballots were sent out between Oct. 7 and Oct. 21, but that it was unclear how many had not received them. She said they would send replacement ballots by overnight mail to about 400 people who lived outside the county, and by regular mail to perhaps 2,000 or more living in the county.
 
The United States Postal Service issued a statement on Wednesday saying it was handling absentee ballots "as expeditiously as possible," and had "identified no delays in our handling of balloting materials or actual ballots."

Counties throughout Florida are handling record requests for absentee ballots this year, partly because both political parties have encouraged that method of voting, in addition to the emphasis on early voting. Broward officials told The Sun-Sentinel that 126,220 people had requested absentee ballots as of Tuesday.

A spokesman for Theresa LePore, the Palm Beach County elections supervisor, said her office had mailed more than 125,000 absentee ballots and was sending out several thousand more each day. Many Palm Beach County residents have also complained about not receiving absentee ballots that they requested weeks ago.

Though Broward and Palm Beach Counties are heavily Democratic, Ms. Tucker Fletcher said many Republicans were among those who had not received ballots from the county elections offices.

Most polls, including nightly ones by the campaigns here, show Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry in a near tie. But pollsters are nervous about their findings because of all the new forces tearing up the Florida electoral landscape in this post-2000 world, starting with a surge of 1.6 million new voters added to the rolls, and predictions that voter turnout could break records.

Not incidentally, this is also the first presidential election that has included extensive use of early voting, and that has already produced long lines of people that have served as graphic evidence of just how interested people are in this election. Aides to Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry estimate that more than one million people have already voted early or by absentee ballot, a number that has stunned them.

Both sides had been gearing up for a contest that could be determined by two things: Get-out-the-vote efforts before Election Day and litigation after the vote was done.

Even so, the apparent tightness of the contest here has surprised some Republicans who thought that the hurricanes that whipped through this state in August and September - leading to a series of images of Mr. Bush helping Floridians in need, and keeping Mr. Kerry away - would allow Mr. Bush to spend more of his time and energy in states like Ohio.

On Wednesday, for example, Vice President Dick Cheney, campaigning in Kissimmee, south of Orlando, made a point of reminding voters of the natural disasters of the past two months, and the White House's role in helping out.

"The state has been through a lot with Hurricanes Charley, Jeanne, Frances and Ivan," Mr. Cheney said, according to the White House transcript of his speech, adding: "The president and I applaud all of your efforts. And we want you to know the federal government is doing everything it can to help. President Bush has approved $13.6 billion for the people of Florida and other states hit by the hurricanes."

But aides to both campaigns said Mr. Bush did not get the boost from the hurricanes that he had hoped for. Instead, Mr. Kerry's aides contend, the hurricanes here meant that Floridians were never exposed to some of the coverage of difficult months for the Kerry campaign - from the attacks on his war record by some Vietnam veterans to accounts of turmoil in his campaign - and saved Mr. Kerry here from the downturn he suffered in the rest of the country.

The early turmoil and litigation come as Florida has been pushing the envelope on various voting procedures, in particular absentee ballots, which are expected to favor Republicans, and early voting, which is expected to favor Democrats.

"You don't have to wait until Nov. 2 to vote," Mr. Kerry's running mate, Senator John Edwards, said at a rally here just south of Miami on Wednesday. "We don't want you to wait until Nov. 2 to vote."

Mr. Edwards's remarks reflected the calculation of Democrats, and the belief of some independent analysts, that a high turnout, particularly in the form of early voting, would help Mr. Kerry. Democrats and some independent analysts argued that a high turnout would be part of the backlash from 2000 and would reflect an increased number of minority voters and young voters who are more likely to support Mr. Kerry.
"Everything I see suggests that there's going to be a pretty high turnout on Tuesday, and that, in my opinion, would be better for Kerry," said Jim Kane, chief pollster for Florida Voter, a nonpartisan polling organization.

Mr. Kane said early voting could prove beneficial to Democrats because, if they succeeded in getting their most fervent supporters to vote before Nov. 2, that would give them more flexibility to turn out more reluctant voters on Election Day.

But Mr. Bush's campaign manager, Ken Mehlman, argued that the Republicans had more than kept up with Democrats in getting their supporters out to the polls early, and that the party continued its advantage on absentee voters.

"Over all, you look at Florida, we have a broader, deeper organization," Mr. Mehlman said. "I think the president's numbers are stronger."

Steve Rosenthal, the chief executive of America Coming Together, a Democratic organization that has set up extensive get-out-the-vote operations here, said that Republicans in the state had gone toe to toe with Democrats on voter registration over the past years.

But Mr. Rosenthal disputed Mr. Mehlman's contention that Republicans had done as well or better in getting their supporters to the polls before Election Day.

"On early voting, we have cleaned their clocks," Mr. Rosenthal said.

State officials moved on Wednesday to assure state residents who did not get their absentee ballot that they would not be disenfranchised.

Alia Faraj, a spokeswoman for the Florida secretary of state, Glenda Hood, said people who did not receive absentee ballots could still vote in person, at early-voting sites or on Election Day. Ms. Faraj said Ms. Hood was extremely concerned about the problem.

Herman Post, who said he divided his time between Connecticut and Boca Raton, said he called the Palm Beach County elections office 10 days ago to inquire about a ballot he requested in September, and was told it had been mailed on Oct. 12.

When Mr. Post still had not received the ballot by Wednesday, he said, he called back.

"They say they never mailed me one, that there's no record from me having applied for it," he said. "I think there's obviously some phony baloney going on down there."

Mr. Post, 82, said he would drive to Florida to vote, leaving Connecticut at dawn on Sunday.