Upset, frustrated voters blame officials for errors, delays at polls

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Posted on Thu, Sep. 12, 2002 BY ELENA CABRAL, OSCAR CORRAL AND WILLIAM YARDLEY wyardley@herald.com

The free bumper stickers resting on the counter outside Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas' busy office on election night expressed a simple optimism:

``I love my city.''

But more complex local sentiment seemed to prevail on Wednesday as the weight of public scorn descended on election officials in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, struggling once again to count votes.

''We should have the Carter Center and the United Nations come down and act as monitors. At least you could get the vote right,'' said Coconut Grove lawyer Marc Sarnoff, who needed three trips to the polls Tuesday to cast his ballot because of voting machine and parking problems. ``Before we spend all this money in Afghanistan teaching everyone else to vote, maybe we should try it ourselves.''

The head of the Florida NAACP already has called for David Leahy, Miami-Dade elections supervisor, to resign. So did Miami state Sen. Kendrick Meek, who is headed to Congress next year. Miriam Oliphant, Broward supervisor of elections, under criticism even before the election, blamed problems on ``human error, mechanical error.''

Secretary of State Jim Smith appeared on television yet again, emphasizing that only two of Florida's 67 counties -- Miami-Dade and Broward -- had systemic election problems Tuesday.

EYES ON THE VOTE

Some national news reports all but mocked the developments. NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw smirked on air. But unlike detached outsiders, South Florida voters felt betrayed.

''I didn't get to vote. I could cry over that,'' said Pearl Kay, an 82-year-old Key Biscayne voter who found it too tiring to stand in line for the single voting machine that was working at Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church about 9 a.m. ``I'm one of those that believes every vote counts.

``We asked if we could come back and they gave us that slip . . . but we couldn't because it stormed here. The rain poured and we couldn't get out.''

At predominantly black precinct 224 in Carol City, potential voters complained that, as many felt in 2000, they were about to be disenfranchised again.

The trouble: When polls opened at 7 a.m., none of the 14 voting machines worked.

Some left out of frustration. By later in the morning, only four machines had been activated. Marie Love-Jackson was among several who returned later.

''I want Bush out of here,'' she said. ``I need to make sure Reno has my vote. Many of us want him gone, but we're not going to be able to vote him out like this.''

Not only were there machine troubles, but many were about to have their cars towed, causing yet another wave of voters to leave the precinct. They were parked in an area that school officials said had to be cleared for school buses.

''This is more intimidation,'' said voter Sam Rainey. ``I have to stand here to try to vote when half of the machines aren't working, and now move my car. This is completely ridiculous.''

In Broward, Election Day was particularly frustrating for blind activist Robert Goldstein of Tamarac, who had lobbied Broward county and state officials for more than a year to set up a system to allow blind voters to cast a secret ballot using an audio system and a keypad.

TRAINING AN ISSUE

But when Goldstein, 67, went to his polling place at the Kings Point condominium on Tuesday, poll workers could not operate the special headset designed for blind voters.

''The pollster had no idea what was going on; she wasn't trained for it,'' Goldstein said. ``She had to read from a book to see what she had to do.''

Goldstein's wife, Mildred, ended up voting for him, using the touch screen.

In Miami Springs on Tuesday, Madeleine Palenzuela was in line at 6:55 a.m., but by 7:45 a.m., with precinct workers struggling to activate the machines, she had yet to vote.

''We asked the man in charge to call the help line, but he refused and insisted the machines were broken,'' said Palenzuela, a law student at the University of Miami who was trying to make a morning class. ``It was an extremely frustrating experience for me.''

Recalling the 2000 election, Theodore Moscowitz figured he had better make it to his Miami Beach precinct early. The 83-year-old woke at 6 a.m. and soon arrived to a chaotic scene at Precinct 46 at the South Shore Community Center on Sixth Street.

He and a friend waited in line for an hour and a half. The machines were not working. The line was long. He went home, hoping things would improve later. ''I have never before in my lifetime seen a poll not be open,'' Moscowitz said Wednesday.

Still, Moscowitz persisted, returning in the afternoon. He finally took his place in front of a new voting machine, pondering its high-tech look.

''A lot of people have never touched a computer in their lives and when they look at it, it draws a blank. You have to press this, you have to press that,'' Moscowitz said. ``It most affects older people.''

Moscowitz said he voted on all the referendum and charter questions, most candidates, then problems started. He became confused at one of the procedural questions. He hesitated to call a supervisor because he believed the voting process should be private.

Finally, he pushed the wrong button, and Moscowitz said he left without his vote being counted.

''I thought it was going well,'' he said. ``All of a sudden, it came back to repeat, check or review. And when I reviewed it, it said it wiped out all my votes. I kept touching and touching. I didn't want anyone to know my business. I don't know how it happened. But that's what happened.''



-- Anonymous, September 12, 2002


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