Just a little reminder of *how far we've come*...
Palm Beach Post, 10 October 2004Duval
In the elections supervisor's office in downtown Jacksonville hangs a large banner. It reads: "America's Best Election." Four years ago, the performance in Duval was anything but.
About 27,000 votes were discarded, more than in any county in the state.
A badly designed "caterpillar ballot" that listed presidential candidates on two pages led almost 22,000 people to vote for more than one candidate in that race. None of those votes wound up being counted.
The majority of errors occurred in predominantly black precincts. Because blacks voted about 9-to-1 for Democratic candidate Al Gore statewide, it is believed that the Democrat lost thousands of votes in Duval, enough to sway the election, which finally was decided by 537 votes.
The ballot was designed in the offices where the banner hangs today. Supervisor John Stafford, a Republican, mailed 170,000 sample ballots before the election. The sample instructed voters to vote on each page. When they did, they over-voted in the presidential race and were disqualified.
Some black voters also reported that in 2000, as well as in 2002, their names were missing from voter rolls, or they were asked for more than one type of identification, also a violation of the rules. The problems have created great distrust of Stafford.
"There are other counties that may have problems because of the sheer volume of voters, but in Duval we have to look out for nefarious policies," says Howard Simon, Florida executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. Simon says his organization may send black voters with hidden cameras into Duval precincts on Nov. 2 to capture any abuses of power by poll workers.
Stafford is on medical leave and has been replaced temporarily by aide Dick Carlberg. Carlberg is also a Republican but has won the respect of local Democratic leaders, and has eased tensions.
Elections office spokeswoman Erin Moody says the over-vote problem was solved by new state ballot design rules that call for all candidates in a race to be listed on one page, and by optical-scan technology.
"If you vote twice in the same race, the machine spits your ballot back and won't accept it," she says.
As for the identification issue, Carlberg says new state standards, which provide that would-be voters fill out affidavits if they don't have ID, will be adhered to. The canvassing board later decides whether to count the vote.
But a new problem worries Carlberg: In the final days before the Oct. 4 registration deadline, thousands of voters signed up. More than 500,000 are registered, compared with about 425,000 in 2000.
"If they wait until the last moment to show up on Election Day, they may get there after 7 p.m. and not be able to vote," he says. "It could be a problem."
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