Posted on Mon, Nov. 04, 2002

ALEX VEIGA Associated Press Writer

MIAMI - State and county officials expressed confidence Monday that Florida will finally have a well-run election, but hundreds of voters took no chances, casting their ballots a day early.

The drive to vote early - something that Florida law allows - was particularly strong in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, where poor planning and other problems led to polls opening late and lost votes during the September primary.

Okaloosa, Pinellas and Palm Beach voters also waited for hours at special early polling sites Monday, wading through ballots loaded with lengthy amendments and several statewide races, including the gubernatorial contest.

"I've waited an hour and 20 minutes already," said Sherry Swanson of Sunrise, one of several hundred people at a Broward early voting station Monday. "If I can't vote in 30 minutes, I'm off the line. I have a meeting I can't miss."

Elections officials hope that when all the polling stations are open Tuesday, that will shorten the wait, but concede there will be delays.

"We may have, in some areas, long lines. People may have to wait a bit to vote, but that's a very small price to pay to participate in an open and free democracy," Florida Secretary of State Jim Smith said Monday.

"(Tuesday) night I'm confident we're going to be able to say that we had a good election, all our polls opened on time, that the equipment worked properly," he said.

Polling stations open at 7 a.m. statewide.

Floridians will choose between Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and Democratic challenger Bill McBride. Also on the ballot were the offices of attorney general and agriculture commissioner.

Voters were also being asked to consider 10 amendments to the state Constitution, including a ban on smoking in most workplaces, reforms of how the state governs its university system and perhaps the most contentious: a proposal to reduce the number of students in public classrooms.

Partly cloudy skies were expected to cover South and central Florida, with only a slight chance of rain, according to the National Weather Service. Mostly cloudy conditions and a fair chance for thunderstorms were forecast for north Florida and the Panhandle.

Smith said he expected about a 60 percent voter turnout statewide.

"That's high for a midterm election," he said.

Miami-Dade and Broward counties, which account for nearly 2 million registered voters, reported early voting turnout reaching six figures. Early polling stations have been open in those counties for about two weeks.

Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas said 95,874 people had voted early or sent in absentee ballots as of Sunday night. He said up to 8,000 ballots were cast Monday.

The county expects a 60 percent voter turnout, or about 575,000 people, said spokesman Juan Mendieta.

Broward election officials said 100,000 votes had been cast as of Saturday, either through absentee ballots or early voting. They expect nearly half of the county's more than 978,000 registered voters to cast ballots Tuesday.

In Pasco County, Elections Supervisor Kurt Browning said that more than 1,700 people voted Monday, and that overall more than 10,000 people had voted early.

Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore said as of Saturday, at least 43,000 voters had returned absentee ballots and another 19,000 had requested them.

"The lines have been out the door all day long, but voters have been very patient," LePore said Monday.

In St. Petersburg, Pinellas County Elections Supervisor Deborah Clark said about 2,000 voters per day have been voting early over the last few days.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who'd come from Chicago to encourage Florida blacks to vote, predicted a "major voter turnout" Tuesday and said black voters would determine the outcome.

"After all of the years that the black voters faced denial and disenfranchisement ... (they) have the power tomorrow to determine the governor of Florida, the next Congress and the next Senate," Jackson told reporters outside Bethel AME Church in Tallahassee.

Miami-Dade and Broward election officials have been hastily working to increase poll worker training and add hundreds of county workers to troubleshoot the touchscreen voting machines following the botched Sept. 10 primary.

Justice Department election monitors will be watching Tuesday in both counties, as well as Orange, Duval and Osceola. Independent observers are also expected to monitor the election in Miami-Dade.

Smith was on hand Monday as Miami-Dade election workers began to set up the machines at a polling station in a mostly black precinct near downtown Miami.

During the primary, the precinct opened late and then had to shut down for several hours because of problems with the electrical outlets at the elementary school.

The county began setting up the machines Monday afternoon at all 533 polling places. It takes about 15 minutes to set up each machine, about 45 minutes for ones with an audio ballot used by blind or visually impaired voters.

"Florida is going to have a good election around the state," Smith said. "We're going to get the monkey off our back."

Meanwhile in Orange County, election workers, wearing plastic gloves to preserve fingerprints, were separating thousands of absentee ballots involving the race for state Senate District 24 as the state attorney's office looked into allegations of voter fraud. The Democratic Party planned to challenge a handful of the ballots.

Sonja Koba, a 39-year-old hospital scheduler, told election officials in Orange County on Monday that she had received an absentee ballot in Spanish by mail even though she had never requested it and that someone had forged her signature on the request form.

"I was surprised at how easy it was for someone to obtain a second ballot for me," said Koba, a registered Democrat. "I do feel defrauded by someone signing my name and I would like to know who is responsible for it."

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2002