Some absentee ballots might not arrive in time

BY RAFAEL A. OLMEDA

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

 

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - (KRT) - The Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office ped off nearly 2,500 absentee ballots at the main mail center Saturday, and postal workers have to scramble to make sure they are delivered on Monday, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman said.

In the final days of the campaign season, early voters lined up for up to five hours to cast their ballots, last-minute boosters came to South Florida to inspire a large turnout, and Democrats declared themselves ready to fight for any registered voter challenged by the GOP across the state.

A postal service spokesman said he hoped the last-minute batch of absentee ballots, received at the Fort Lauderdale Processing and Distribution Center on Oakland Park Boulevard, reached voters in time for their votes to count.

"Much to our surprise (elections workers) showed up at our back dock at 1:50 on Saturday afternoon with 2,467 ballots that needed to go out," said postal spokesman Gerry McKiernan. "Then they came back at 3 o'clock with 29 more."

McKiernan said he worried that many voters would not be able to return their absentee ballots in time. Absentee ballots must be received by the Supervisor of Elections no later than 7 p.m. Tuesday. Absentee voters who are in Broward County and receive their ballots Monday or Tuesday might meet the 7 p.m. deadline, but McKiernan said it was probably too late to mail absentee ballots to out-of-state voters.

"Some of these have to go out to Atlanta, Little Rock, Las Vegas," McKiernan said. "I have to be honest. I don't think we're going to make it on those."

Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes said earlier this week that out-of-state voters would receive their absentee ballots via Federal Express. Attempts to reach her by cell phone on Saturday were unsuccessful.

Snipes said Friday afternoon that the last of the absentee ballots were to be mailed to Friday night. About 3,000 were sent to the Post Office, while another 3,000 were sent out by Federal Express.

The postal service and the supervisor's office have been blaming each other for apparent delays in the delivery of thousands of absentee ballots to voters this week, though Friday night's mailing is expected to settle the issue until Saturday's off.

Some voters decided they could not afford to wait for a mailed ballot.

Kevin James, 20, of Lauderhill, said he traveled 11 hours by bus from Tallahassee, where he is a senior at Florida A&M University, because he still has not received an absentee ballot and he wanted to make sure he voted in this election.

"For me not to vote would be a great disservice to everyone who fought for the right to vote," said James. "And it would be a disservice to myself. If you don't vote you can't complain."

James waited four hours to vote at the Lauderhill Mall.

Long lines were found at other early voting sites.

At the elections office branch in Pembroke Pines, voters waited up to five hours. Many brought chairs, books, and music to keep themselves entertained while waiting to cast their ballots. Shortly after noon, actor LeVar Burton ("Roots," "Star Trek") and actress Jenifer Lewis ("Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "What's Love Got to Do With It") arrived to encourage the crowd to be patient and stay in line.

"That was really nice of them," said Monique Harrell, 32, of Miramar, who had been waiting more than an hour when the celebrities arrived and was still on line two hours after they left.

Also on Saturday afternoon, Senator Bill Nelson, D-Florida, and U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, told reporters that Democrats are prepared to have poll watchers or lawyers ready at every precinct in the state on Election Day, hoping to keep Republicans from slowing the lines by challenging the eligibility of voters.

Nelson acknowledged that it's proper to challenge a voter who's not registered or eligible to vote, but added that he did not think legitimate challenges were the Republicans' only motive.

"If they do it for the purpose of slowing down and intimidating and discouraging voters, that's another thing," he said. "We want everybody to be forewarned that they have a right to vote, and if they see these tactics they should seek legal help."

State Republicans have said verifying the legitimacy of voters is their only motive, but the Democrats accused them of disproportionately stationing poll watchers in minority precincts.

In Miami-Dade, Meek said, Republicans have registered poll watchers at 59 percent of districts where the voting population is predominantly non-white, but only 39 percent of districts where the population is mostly white. Numbers were not available for Broward County.

Meek praised state Elections Director Dawn Roberts for establishing a clear set of rules for how challenges are to be handled, ensuring that challenged voters will be able to cast provisional ballots.

And as the campaign draws to a close, callers flooded the customer service phone lines at a local television station Saturday night after the station aired a half-hour block of "Stolen Honor," a documentary attacking Sen. Kerry's service in Vietnam and his conduct after he returned from that war. Station Vice President and General Manager Dave Boylan said Newton Media, a Virginia-based company, bought three half-hour blocks to air portions of the documentary before the election.

"We sell time to people looking to get their message to the public," said Boylan.

The documentary interrupted a Michigan v. Michigan State college football game that was tied, 37-37, and about to go into overtime.

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