By JOEL ENGELHARDT, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Tuesday, September 10, 2002

Florida may have rid itself of punch card machines and pregnant chads, but it has yet to figure out how to stop hundreds of voters from blowing their vote.

That became all too obvious Monday when the Palm Beach County elections canvassing board threw out about 100 absentee ballots from the thousands submitted by voters who couldn't make it to the polls today.

And that's on top of another 100 or so the board threw out last week.

The problem was a flashback to Palm Beach County's infamous Election 2000: Voters failed to follow instructions.

Some forgot to sign their ballots. Rejected.

Others failed to get a witness' signature. Rejected.

Still others had a witness but the witness didn't write down an address.

Rejected. Rejected. Rejected.

There was another problem, too -- fishy signatures. Workers review every signature against the voter's registration card, which can date back decades. One 97-year-old man signed his ballot with a signature that didn't look anything like the one on his registration card of 30 years ago. It was much clearer this time. Rejected.

Over and over again the board made up of Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore, County Commission Chairman Warren Newell and County Judge Barry Cohen had no choice but to follow the rules that voters forgot.

Every absentee ballot must have the voter's signature and a signature of a witness at least 18 years old. And the witness must list an address so he or she can be contacted if need be.

One woman, who asked not to be identified, said she realized right away that her ballot had been mailed without the critical witness signature. She is 89 and she doesn't get around well. So she asked a friend to witness the ballot before dropping it off at the post office. The witness forgot to sign.

Chalk up one fewer vote for Janet Reno. There's no recourse once a voter casts his ballot, as thousands of voters learned two years ago when they argued for a revote for president in Palm Beach County.

Then, the canvassing board of LePore, County Commissioner Carol Roberts and County Judge Charles Burton met on a hastily erected stage in a parking lot with a media throng conveying their every move. Then they reviewed punch cards.

Monday, the board met in a back room of the supervisor's new office building to review the envelopes for the absentee ballots, which are now read by an optical-scan machine.

In all, LePore said her office has received about 11,000 absentee ballots.

About 19,000 voters -- a record number for a September election in the county -- had asked for absentee ballots by early Monday. LePore guessed part of the reason for the increase is fear of the new machines and worries about polling-place confusion.

Elections workers began feeding returned absentee ballots into optical-scan readers Saturday. Questions that arise about how voters filled out the ballot -- for instance if they circled a candidate's name instead of darkening the line next to the name -- will be considered by the canvassing board tonight.

No totals will be calculated until the polls, where new touch-screen machines will be used, are closed.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2002

Answers

I just came from voting. easy as filling a diaper.

I've also been seeing a lot of ballots in the mail. I noticed that ones from out of the country have postage paid envelopes but those in the US do not. No one could tell me why that is.

I also mentioned to one clerk that I thought it would be important to make sure the ones with stamps have a legible cancellation date. I figure if we happen to have a delay in delivery it would help the voter. she agreed. No, I know of no way to back-date the cancellation stamp, so I doubt that will be a problem.

It's started raining, just after I got home from the polls. The weatherman said last night that we would be experiencing rainy conditions because Gustav is pulling moisture from down south and it's dragging its wet self across our area. I imagine this will affect the attendance at the polling places.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2002

nasty nasty lightning. I've unplugged the Tv in the living room, but my computer is on a blackout buster so I'm staying on line for a while longer.

Have to shower soon to get ready for work and I'd rather the lightning held off while I do that.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2002