Platoons of observers uncover no problems

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Posted on Wed, Nov. 06, 2002 story:PUB_DESC

BY JAY WEAVER jweaver@herald.com

They came from Japan.

They came from Washington, D.C.

They even came from former communist countries -- Russia, Bosnia and Albania.

Hundreds of monitors, observers and poll watchers descended on Miami-Dade County like a swarm of voting voyeurs Tuesday -- drawn by calamities in the September primary and 2000 presidential elections.

''Most places we've been to have had disastrous dictatorial governments,'' said Allen Weinstein, president of the Center for Democracy, the nonpartisan Washington group hired by the county to monitor its general election. Among the center's previous monitoring assignments: Russia, Nicaragua and the Philippines.

Top Miami-Dade officials, who enlisted the police department to help stage Tuesday's election, didn't embarrass themselves. The county's iVotronic touch-screen machines, which replaced its maligned punch-card system, operated almost perfectly throughout the day -- a stark contrast to the Sept. 10 primary, when many polls didn't open on time and hundreds of voters were turned away.

Weinstein predicted Miami-Dade was poised to lose its image as a fumbler of elections.

''What they're doing in Miami-Dade County could become a model for the country,'' said Weinstein, a history professor whose group was hired by a reluctant County Commission for $92,188.

Weinstein gave that rosy outlook while standing early Tuesday inside the polling place at Thena C. Crowder Elementary School, one of dozens of polling places that stayed closed for hours during the primary because county poll workers were unable to start up the touch-screen machines.

Weinstein said he chose that school to start and end the day's monitoring because so many black voters, there and elsewhere, complained they lost their chance to vote.

Eight Center for Democracy teams with two members each, driven by plainclothes police in unmarked cars, fanned out to more than 100 polling places across the county -- about a 20 percent sample.

He said the center's monitors recorded their observations on a five-page checklist, including questions on precinct opening times, voter access to polls and voting machines. He also said the teams checked on whether each had enough Hispanic and Creole interpreters.

Preliminary reports were ''very good,'' he said. Weinstein's group will turn in its final report in about a week.

Voters praised the Center for Democracy's role.

''It makes you feel more secure that your vote will count,'' said Joy Clark, 29, a state social-welfare worker who voted at Edison Senior Plaza at 200 NW 55th St.

Other groups also visited precincts in Miami-Dade or Broward County. Among them: representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice, House Administration Committee, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a Japanese elections delegation and a European human-rights group and the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, an umbrella group of voting-rights advocates.

''We expected to see lots of improvements,'' said Katsu Murayama, spokesman for the Japanese group.

The Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights sent a seven-country delegation to observe the vote in Miami-Dade, Broward and other Florida counties.

''This is our first visit to observe an election in the United States,'' said Andi Gross, a member of the Swiss parliament, adding that he has monitored 22 elections in European countries.

Herald staff writers Carol Rosenberg and Erika Bolstad contributed to this report.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

Answers

it will be interesting when the official turnout count by precinct is announced.

I suppose they will say it was because so many decided it wasn't worth the hassle since their votes won't count.

My precinct was running at its usual efficiency. We were in line as they opened, and actual voting time at the machine was maybe three minutes.

I thought someone might be interested in the Florida numbers, so here is the link to the state URL.

http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/ http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/

And Miami-Dade

http://elections.miamidade.gov/ http://elections.miamidade.gov/

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002


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