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By Scott Wyman and Brittany Wallman Staff writers Posted September 17 2002
A group of Broward County political insiders has begun to take charge of running the November election and is drawing up plans to reform Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant's office and hold a countywide dry run before the vote.
The leader of the group has discovered Broward's elections problems are far deeper than the chaos that surrounded last Tuesday's vote. Oliphant has overspent her personnel budget by some $500,000, according to county officials, and has no one solely in charge of human resources.
Gov. Jeb Bush has given his blessing to the group even though it does not exactly mirror what he proposed when he ordered Broward and Miami-Dade counties to fix their election systems. Bush's support, coupled with his power to remove Oliphant if he wants, means she will have little choice but to accept the sweeping changes being considered.
"We don't have any time to waste, but I think we will be able to pull this off," said Art Kennedy, a top aide to U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings and head of the 28-member election task force. "Our problem was training and organization, and that's going to change."
Oliphant and her spokesman, Rick Riley, couldn't be reached for comment Monday.
Kennedy's group will begin work this morning and has only seven weeks to get the county ready for the November election, when voters choose a governor and representatives in Congress, the state Legislature, County Commission and School Board.
Under a fast-paced schedule Kennedy is setting, he wants an assessment of the administrative problems in Oliphant's office conducted and finished and a series of public forums held so people can air their complaints about Tuesday's vote -- both by the end of the week.
The assessment would be done by a team that includes Social Security official Velma Blaine, Jane Gross of the League of Women Voters, Broward Community College President Will Holcombe and North Broward Hospital District chief Will Trower. The public forums will be the responsibility of José "Pepe" Lopez, president of the Latin Chamber of Commerce.
Kennedy plans a mock election Oct. 15 to ensure all the kinks are worked out of the voting system before Nov. 5. The goal would be to have the computerized voting booths running at every precinct by 6:30 a.m.
He also wants the County Commission to hire Joe Cotter, a former top deputy in the supervisor's office, as a consultant working for the task force. Cotter is one of the longtime members of former Supervisor Jane Carroll's staff who left or were pushed out after Oliphant took over the office last year.
Bush had asked the County Commission to appoint a task force with say-so over Oliphant's election planning as part of the steps he wanted to avoid another election fiasco. But in an e-mail to Kennedy, he said he will accept the group that Kennedy organized at Oliphant's behest.
"This looks like a good plan if taken seriously," Bush wrote. "We will need to see tangible action. It gives me great comfort to know you are involved and taking responsibility."
Tuesday's election disintegrated into Florida's second voting disaster in two years as polls opened late and closed early and voters were given the wrong ballot or inaccurate registration information. Election officials continued to work Monday to resolve questions surrounding the vote totals.
The lack of a personnel manager and the budget deficit could hamstring any reform, but Kennedy began moving Monday to clear those out of the way.
Urban League President Don Bowen said he, Holcombe and Trower may become the de-facto human relations directors in Oliphant's office.
Their duty would be to prevent a manpower shortage on election day, Bowen said. The three may look at Oliphant's organization and see what systems she has in place for recruiting, training and assigning poll workers.
The $500,000 deficit could be an issue as Kennedy looks for extra money to hire Cotter and fill other gaps in Oliphant's office. He said the office also needs someone with a computer technology background to oversee the new election equipment.
His first choice will be to turn to the County Commission for funding. But he has asked Republican activist and Fort Lauderdale lawyer Bill Scherer and other community leaders to help raise money if necessary.
Scherer said he hopes such fund-raising is done only as a drastic, last step.
County commissioners are wary of giving more money unless there is a specific plan to turn around the election system. Commission Chairwoman Lori Parrish also said she'd want the county auditor to investigate whether Oliphant has spent her $5.3 million budget properly.
"We are not going to write a blank check," Parrish said.
One big problem facing Kennedy is poll workers. Oliphant had trouble staffing all of Broward's polls and then angered many of the volunteer workers by blaming them for what went wrong.
Kennedy hopes to smooth over those feelings and has a backup plan to handle last-minute poll worker shortages. He wants a team of 1,200 to 1,500 students from local colleges on standby to fill in at any precinct, shuttled there by sheriff's deputies.
Another problem is confusion over polling places. Oliphant moved polling places and added new ones to come in line with new census information, leaving voters flustered.
Kennedy said switching polling places again for the November vote would cause more confusion, so he wants to use buses and vans from the county and social services agencies to get people to the polls.
Some senior citizens in retirement communities complained their polls were moved to distant locations, making it impossible for them to vote.
Scott Wyman can be reached at swyman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4511. Brittany Wallman can be reached at bwallman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4541.
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