Voting was smooth and honest in at least one Florida precinct
I can’t speak for the whole state, but at Precinct 41 in Bradenton, Florida, where I was a Democratic Party pollwatcher, voting was smooth, the count was correct, and there were no attempts to intimidate minority voters. Precinct 41 was one of the “minority-majority” precincts where Republican shenanigans were considered likely. That’s why I was there, along with two lawyers, carefully observing every step of the voting process. There were Republican pollwatchers, too, but they basically sat around and did nothing. They were there because they got paid $45 for each 3-hour “shift” they put in, and did as little as possible for their money. The Democrats did not get paid, but were there as volunteers. And even though it may not matter in the larger scheme of things, Democrats won big in this precinct.
Very few people were kept from casting votes here. One was turned away because she had only registered to vote for the first time two weeks ago, well after the cutoff date for this election. One had moved to Bradenton from Tampa last week and hadn’t reregistered or filed an address change. Several others had moved locally and were still on the voter rolls in their old precincts. They were either sent to their old precincts or were allowed to fill out address changes on the spot and swear or affirm that their new addresses were correct.
The machine worked fine
Manatee County, where Bradenton is located, uses OCR voting machines. They are simple, reliable, and leave a complete “paper” record of every vote. The election clerks had no trouble setting up the one in Precinct 41. This doesn’t mean every vote was problem-free; eight ballots (out of 221 votes cast in person at Precinct 41) were “spoiled” by voters who made marks where they didn’t mean to make them. Those voters immediately got new ballots. The mismarked ones were folded (so they couldn’t be run through the machine) and put in “spoiled ballot” envelopes signed by two or more election workers.
With OCR voting, paper is the heart of the process. Voters use a marking pen to fill in small ovals next to their choices, just like taking a multiple-choice test. If they “overvote” by making maks next to two choices instead of one, the machine rejects their ballot. This was, indeed, why several ballots were “spoiled.” But beyond this function, the machine — one per precinct — is nothing but a counter and repository. If it breaks, election workers can call the Election Board, who can send out a person to fix or replace the machine. If all else fails, the Election Board person can remove the ballots from it (in front of witnesses) so they can be hand-counted. (Precinct-level election workers do not have access to the ballots once they are slid into the OCR unit.)
Precinct workers were all retirees. None claimed any computer expertise. But the OCR unit was simple enough to operate, and the instructions were written clearly enough, that they had no trouble operating it.
Elsewhere in Manatee County
A number of Manatee County polling locations are on private property, usually in churches and neighborhood recreation centers. At several of these, Democrats were told they could not post signs or engage in other electioneering even outside of the 50′ “no campaigning zone” that surrounds each polling place. The Democrats stood their ground and remained in every case, was was their legal right, and they were backed by the Elections Supervisor, Bob Sweat.
Sweat is a Republican, but is proud of his people’s ability to run a smooth election. I talked to him when he came around. His big fear was of blowing his budget (and his office’s reputation) over legal challenges. He told precinct workers not to be too picky about things like keeping campaigners working outside of the polling place if, say, they needed to use the bathroom, even if they had no legal right to be inside. (Florida law says that only voters (and people assisting handicapped voters), election workers, and registered pollwatchers are allowed inside polling places.)
Campaigners were required to remove campaign buttons and other “electioneering material” from their persons before entering, and were not allowed to engage voters in conversation or discuss politics with them in any way. This was not a burden except for the few campaigners who were wearing campaign t-shirts and had no change of clothing available. I saw this situation exactly once. A borrowed outer shirt thrown over the offending t-shirt took care of the problem.
One thing I’m sure Sweat is considering is adding more voting stations and people, and possibly new voting places, in the eastern portion of Manatee County, where developers are planting houses anywhere they possibly can. Voting lines were short in older neghborhoods like Precinct 41, but I heard there were long waits at some precincts out in the “boonie” areas where population has been expanding rapidly over the past few years.
Future thoughts
You may not have liked the election results in Manatee County, but the election process was honest and fair.
The Democratic Party here does a poor job of connecting with the working people and retirees it supposedly exists to serve. I am often uncomfortable in Democratic Party meetings, which is why I hardly ever go to any. I have gotten the impression that local Democratic Party leaders are much smarter than I am (Just ask them!) and that they don’t need low-life working people like me to help them set priorities, select candidates, and generally decide what direction the party should take.
One thing that bothered me mightily was that many Democratic leaders with whom I spoke refused to be quoted by name. Worse, Kerry campaign staffers here were under a total press embargo. Anything they said to “the press” had to be cleared by their regional headquarters in St. Petersburg. Ummm… okay. Let’s stay out of the public eye and keep our mouths shut while telling the world we’re the party of openness. And then let’s be surprised when we lose elections and seem to have only a fringe following instead of being a viable, mainstream political party here.
In my opinion — which the local Democratic Party hasn’t sought — now is the time to start recruiting candidates for the 2006 elections. Those candidates should be political moderates with histories of professional competence, and local offices should be the main target. The way to build a grass roots political base is by running solid campaigns for school boards, city and county councils, and other ultra-local offices. Republicans here started doing this 25 years ago and essentially took over all Manatee County politics.
The question for the Democratic Party here is whether it’s flexible enough to present positive alternatives to entrenched Republicans. If not, it is doomed to be a fringe group, at best concerned with issues most voters don’t care much about, at worst on the wrong side of many that stir strong passions.