By John Lantigua, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Saturday, November 9, 2002

For county Democratic Party leaders, the specific numbers are a nightmare. It was their own Democratic base that let them down.

The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office released precinct-by-precinct figures Friday for Tuesday's balloting. In instance after instance, voters in overwhelmingly Democratic precincts were clearly underwhelmed by Democratic candidate Bill McBride and just stayed home.

Although turnout for the county as a whole was 53 percent, many precincts where registered Democrats were most dominant -- often more than 75 percent of registered voters -- had turnouts of less than 45 percent, and some were even under 30 percent. Meanwhile, many precincts with a majority of Republicans registered were above the average turnout.

Black precincts recorded particularly low turnout rates. At Precinct 7066 in Riviera Beach, an overwhelmingly African-American polling place, 85 percent of the registered voters are Democrats, but the precinct recorded only a 24 percent turnout. At Precinct 6026 in Belle Glade, also largely black, 86 percent of registered voters are Democrats; the turnout was 26 percent.

Meanwhile, Precinct 4002, at the village of Golf near Boynton Beach, 84 percent Republican, recorded a turnout of 60 percent.

Although McBride won the county over incumbent Republican Gov. Jeb Bush 56 percent to 43 percent and by a total of 52,000 votes, those numbers paled in comparison to the landslide victory of November 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, who beat Republican George W. Bush 62 percent to 35 percent and by a total of 116,000 votes.

"A total disaster," county Democratic Party Chairman Monte Friedkin said of Tuesday's voting.

Many who voted in the Sept. 10 primary for either former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno or State Sen. Daryl Jones simply didn't vote Tuesday, Friedkin said.

"We had a badly divided party," he said. "And we also didn't have the money we needed to get out the vote."

Black leaders said the dismal turnout was a direct result of McBride's lack of effort in the black community.

"He didn't understand that he couldn't do it by television," said state Rep. James "Hank" Harper, D-West Palm Beach. "You have to come here and lay hands on the African-American community in order to win. I sent him a letter saying he had to do more. He just didn't listen."

"The effort to get out the African-American vote started later than in any election in at least the last 10 years and it wasn't enough," said Mikel Jones, an aide to U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings. "McBride and his people spent their time trying to woo those voters in the northern part of the state and those young voters who don't care about civil rights. Those people just weren't going to vote Democrat anyhow."

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2002