Florida election chiefs: Get rid of Election Day

ByGARY FINEOUT and MARY ELLEN KLAS

Miami Herald   01 December 2004

Florida's election supervisors, impressed by the success of early voting, proposed dramatic reforms Tuesday that would eliminate Election Day, replace it with an 11-day election season and do away with precincts.

The association of the state's 67 chief elections officials voted in concept at its annual winter meeting in Orlando to informally present the idea to the Legislature and to start rallying support for what its members concede would be a sea change in how Floridians vote.

''I think the voters spoke loud and clear in the general election of 2004 that they want other options than to be limited to 12 hours on a Tuesday to vote,'' said Bill Cowles, Orange County supervisor of elections and president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections. ``We should seize upon the opportunity in 2005 to make the changes so we can try it in 2006.''

This past election season marked the first time that Florida used early voting across the state and it was a proven success, as some voters waited in line for hours in order to cast their ballot ahead of Election Day.

Election supervisors say the experience showed them they could move away from the traditional Election Day and a precinct structure many believe is outdated. Instead of hundreds of precincts in a county, for example, voters could go to any of a few super-voting sites equipped with enough machines and personnel to keep lines at a minimum.

OUTDATED SYSTEM?

Florida wouldn't be the first state to move to eliminate Election Day. Voters in Oregon, for example, cast all ballots by mail.

''What we're basically telling the Legislature is the precinct system is an archaic system, which does not serve the intent of the voters very well,'' said Ion Sancho, Leon County elections supervisor. ``Requiring that you go to your precinct to vote is not unlike [Caesar] requiring everyone in the Roman Empire showing up in the town of birth so you could do a census.''

Cowles said supervisors weren't wed to a specific number of days, although 11 would cover at least two weekends. He also said the number of polling sites would be left up to individual counties.

Supervisors say the advantage of the proposal is that it could eliminate long-standing problems such as finding enough trained poll workers. It would eliminate the need to disqualify provisional ballots when someone votes in the wrong precinct.

''I'm all for it,'' said Kay Clem, who as Indian River supervisor of elections was forced to consolidate voting locations and open additional early voting sites after hurricanes damaged a quarter of all her polling places. ``It worked famously. I'm telling you, people loved it.''

Sancho, who said he proposed a similar idea two years ago, said the positive experience with early voters helped win over doubters this year.

''We know that we cannot continue in this direction,'' he said. The cost and complexity of technology has made it increasingly difficult to find and adequately train poll workers. Under this plan, poll workers could be better trained and hired for a longer period of time, he said.

COUNTY-LEVEL SUPPORT

Seth Kaplan, a spokesman for Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Constance Kaplan, said the department was impressed with early voting, but hasn't taken a position on the supervisors' proposal.

''Early voting was very successful and we'd be supportive of the concept of expanding it,'' he said. A final decision, however, would be up to the County Commission.

Unlike all of her peers who are elected officials, Kaplan was appointed by the commission.

But supervisors may have to wage a convincing campaign to win support from legislators, who may be reluctant to enact major changes after the relatively problem-free elections this year.

''That's a pretty drastic change and something I know he would want the [House Ethics and Elections] committee to debate fully and get a lot of public input before rendering some kind of an opinion on it,'' said Towson Fraser, a spokesman for House Speaker Allan Bense.

Sen. Bill Posey, the Rockledge Republican who chairs the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, said the idea is ''out of the blue,'' but added he was ``open-minded about anything that makes the process better.''

One Fort Lauderdale Republican who sits on the House Ethics and Elections Committee said she was concerned that people would lose a polling place close to where they live and that lines would be long at super-polling sites.

''People like the convenience of going to their neighborhood church and schools and voting,'' said Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff. ``I'm from Broward County. We have over a million voters. What happens to the lines? With early voting, we had lines three hours long.''