Church buses deliver voters
Finding lines longer than any sermon, some see a sinister motive for the wait.

By Jane Daugherty

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, November 01, 2004

Hundreds of voters stood in line for as long as four hours in the sun Sunday afternoon for a chance to vote early.

Willie Luzetta Gibson, 76, came directly from Sunday morning church services and stood in line at Palm Beach County's main elections office because, she said, "this is the most important election of my life."

Accompanied by her three granddaughters dressed in matching lilac dresses, she said she worried that the lines on Election Day would be too long.

"I just had heart bypass surgery, and my girls could come with me today and help me stand here," she said after taking a church bus to the polling place in suburban West Palm Beach. "I think the 2000 election was stolen from the people, and I hope voting early will make my vote count."

Bishop Thomas Masters of Riviera Beach's New Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church directed the free bus ride program to the polls Sunday. He said stops were made at 200 churches to carry people to early voting sites.

"We brought hundreds of people here today," Masters said. "This is really important. I'm disappointed that people are having to wait so long. Many people think these lines are very deliberate."

He said elections officials had ample notice that large numbers of voters would turn out Sunday. But only two clerks were checking in voters at the north county early voting site, he said, even though there were eight to 10 voting machines available.

Masters, clad in a red-white-and-blue "VOTE" T-shirt, encouraged some of the more than 600 people standing in line at the main elections office Sunday afternoon.

"People should not have to stand in line for hours in the heat to be allowed to vote," he said. "But if they think they can discourage us with long lines, they are wrong. We will vote."

Repeated attempts, both in person and by phone, to contact Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore were unsuccessful Sunday.

Would-be voters showed up in shorts and tank tops, hospital scrubs and their Sunday finest. One man sat in a wheelchair for more than four hours in line, but sheriff's deputies prevented journalists from interviewing him because of new restrictions ordered by LePore. In the middle of an interview with West Palm Beach resident Georgette Millien, deputy R. Drake ordered a Palm Beach Post reporter to move away from the line of voters.

When asked for the law prohibiting voters from talking to reporters, Drake said: "It's Theresa LePore's law. You can't talk to anyone in line to vote."

The Post and other newspapers and television stations had previously interviewed and photographed voters in line without incident since early voting began Oct. 18. LePore did not mention any new restrictions on interviews and photographs during a meeting with news media representatives Friday.

Interviewed after they voted Sunday, insurance attorneys Danna Goldstein and John Clement of West Palm Beach said they arrived an hour before the polls opened at noon. They cast their ballots at 3 p.m.

"I just wanted to make sure Tuesday didn't come and I couldn't vote," Clement said, "I felt the 2000 vote was a real disappointment."

Goldstein said she was incredulous at the length of the wait. "I just don't understand why they can't figure out something to make the vote run more smoothly. You shouldn't have to go through an ordeal to cast your ballot."