Psychotic wingnut voting score: Limbaugh 1, Coulter 0

As I've mentioned here before, I have the misfortune of residing in the same county as those notorious wingnut morons, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. For all the political pontificating and prevaricating they do, surely they both took great pains to make sure they cast their votes earlier this month, right?

Well, not exactly.

I’m told by elections officials that Limbaugh, who’s looking at four years of killer ratings going after the soon-to-be prez Barack Obama, cast his ballot at St. Edward’s Catholic Church.

Ironically, the place once was the Kennedy family’s favored church.

Coulter?

For someone who makes millions from the political process, she may want to rethink this: She didn’t perform her civic duty.

As a matter of fact, I’m told she’s off the voter rolls in Palm Beach, where she has declared her residency.

You may recall that the Coultergeist managed to get into a bit of hot water in 2006 when she cast her ballot in the wrong precinct. Now I guess she's trying to avoid similar problems by, well, just not voting at all.

Therefore, any criticism she might make of any elected official, or any appointments made thereby, for the duration of his or her term is null and void. Kind of like her integrity ...

Precinct, here I come

Off to serve my time do my duty as a poll watcher. Blogging is likely to be light, if not non-existent, today, but it's not like you don't have plenty to do anyway, I'm sure ...

Reminiscences and thoughts on an historic day will follow in due course ... meanwhile, get out and vote ... and get out the vote!

Witnesses to history

This is it.

All the hard work, all the talking, all the campaigning, everything the candidates have done and their staffs have done and their volunteers have done and all the conversations we've had with family and friends and strangers -- it all comes down to this one day.

Tomorrow.

Election Day.

Sure, millions already have voted, but many more millions will vote on this one day. And we're going to see history. As I write this, barring an upset of colossal, historic proportions (yes, I know all about "Dewey Defeats Truman"), tomorrow we will elect the first African-American president in our nation's history. And what's more, Democrats likely will secure huge majorities in each house of Congress, perhaps by margins unseen (at least in the Senate) for thirty years.

The work isn't over. Tomorrow is the most critically important day, and if you're reading this, I hope you'll consider what you can do to help. Volunteer first thing in the morning at your local campaign office. Be a driver to help people get to the polls. Call your friends and encourage them to get to their local precinct. Help them find their precinct if necessary. Of course, if you haven't voted, what are you waiting for?!?

I'll be a poll watcher -- a "Voting Rights Attorney" -- tomorrow, spending all day at a precinct in Palm Beach County to help ensure that everyone who has a right to vote does. We're prepared to face challenges by Republicans, poorly-trained poll workers, broken machines, long lines, you name it ... and we're all over the county, the state and, indeed, the nation. (As a result, blogging may be highly limited or even impossible until late tomorrow night -- not that you'd be reading this sucky blog tomorrow anyway.)

At any rate, if you're out at the polls and you see a Voting Rights Attorney or poll watcher or whatever your area might call it, tell them "thanks." Like you, we all want to make sure that every vote counts.

Follow along with voting in Florida on Twitter this Tuesday

The Palm Beach Post has announced a unique statewide project to following voting issues, problems, and activities this Tuesday utilizing Twitter.

The Post is joining with a number of other newspapers across the state to produce a live, interactive Twitter map of events relating to voting throughout Election Day. You'll be able to see a map of each tweet, giving you the location and nature of each report from all over the state. If there's a machine problem, you'll know about it. If there's a counting issue, you'll know about it. If someone faints in line, quite likely you'll know about it.

My Twitter-friends at the Post tell me that the interactive map will be available at the Post's website, "often as the main art on the home page, at least until polls close, maybe longer." In addition, you'll be able to keep track moment-by-moment on Twitter by following PBP_votes and FloridaVotes.

And, hey, while you're at it, go ahead and follow me, too. You just might learn something. (You can follow Blast Off! as well and get instant updates on every post and comment. It's fun and it's free!)

Update: Palm Beach Post's incorrect voter information corrected ... sort of

Earlier today I told you about the Palm Beach Post's erroneous information regarding voting procedures, particularly as they pertain to absentee ballots.

Well, I'm pleased to see that they've corrected their information online -- at least partially:

Don't forget: If lines are manageable and you opt to vote at your precinct [on Tuesday], bring your absentee ballot with you so it can be spoiled. Otherwise, you could be asked to cast a provisional ballot.

Strictly speaking, that's accurate now. They simply changed "would be asked" to "could be asked." But it still runs the risk of confusing voters and poll workers.

The article's author asked me via email why I would want to discourage voters from bringing back their absentee ballots if they had them, and I replied that of course that wasn't what I meant. But the original article made it seem as though it were mandatory for voters to bring along their absentee ballots if they had them, which as I noted earlier is not the case. I wasn't advocating discouraging voters from bringing absentee ballots along -- I just wanted it made clear that failing to do so would not prevent one from casting a regular ballot.

There's obviously a difference between mandatory and permissible. And it remains permissible, if you have requested an absentee ballot, to not bring it on Tuesday and still be able to vote a regular ballot. Again, the law states that voters who had requested an absentee ballot but who decide to vote in person on Tuesday may cast a regular ballot -- not a provisional one -- if the Supervisor of Elections office confirms that the absentee ballot has not been received.

I still wish the Post's article were more clear on that point, but I guess we should be grateful at least for this correction.

Palm Beach Post publishes incorrect voting information

In today's edition of the Palm Beach Post, both in print and online, reporter Jane Musgrave repeated a common assumption that, because of its inaccuracy, could deter or discourage some Palm Beach County voters from casting their ballots on Tuesday, and it might create some challenges at the polling places, too, if poll workers don't have the correct information.

The article in question, which appears on page 4A of today's printed Post, includes instructions for voters who requested an absentee ballot but who, for whatever reason, decide instead to vote at their regular precinct on Tuesday:

Don't forget: if lines are manageable and you opt to vote at your precinct, bring your absentee ballot with you so it can be spoiled. Otherwise, you will be asked to cast a provisional ballot.

However, this is absolutely not correct. Under Florida law, if it is determined that a voter at the polling place has requested an absentee ballot (this may happen by the voter saying so, or by the precinct's computer records showing that information), the poll worker must contact the Supervisor of Elections office. If the Supervisor's office states that the absentee ballot has not been received, then the voter may cast a regular ballot -- NOT a provisional ballot.

In other words, the article is wrong in two ways -- first, the voter need not bring the absentee ballot to the precinct (although, true, it would be helpful to do so); and second, failure to provide the actual ballot does not necessarily mean that the voter must cast a provisional ballot. (See Florida Department of State Polling Place Procedures Manual, pp. 7-8; Fla. Stat. § 101.69)

It is so incredibly important that mistakes like these do not get circulated as fact or, if they do, that they are retracted immediately. I have emailed Ms. Musgrave as well as the Local editor and the metro and state news desks at the Post and asked for a correction both online and in the print edition, and I copied the head of the Palm Beach County "Vote for Change" legal team. As of this writing, the online information still is wrong.

UPDATE (12:31 pm 10/31/08): I just received a response from Ms. Musgrave: "Ok. But to be on the safe side I’d bring the ballot."

Well, yes, that's all well and good. I replied in essence that while it would be fine to recommend that voters bring the ballot, the article as written clearly and incorrectly states that voters who do not bring the absentee ballot with them must cast a provisional ballot.

Anyway, hopefully the correction will be made soon ...

UPDATE (1:05 pm 10/31/08): I've removed the email addresses for the Post because after a couple of responses from Ms. Musgrave as well as from local campaign officials, via email and phone, I'm satisfied that the wheels are in motion to get this corrected. No sense having a bunch of other DFHs firing off additional emails at them, right? Thanks, though ...

UPDATE (4:45 pm 10/31/08): Please see the latest post on this subject, above.

Early voting hours extended throughout Florida

This just in: Gov. Crist, after consulting with the secretary of state and members of the Florida Legislature, has ordered that early voting hours be extended to 7:00 am till 7:00 pm through Friday, then any combination of 12 hours during Saturday and Sunday*(12 hours all on Saturday, 6 each on Saturday and Sunday, or whatever). The order is effective immediately and covers the entire state.

Florida's congressional Democrats asked Crist last week to keep early voting sites open later and keep them open on Sunday after reports of voters waiting hours in line to cast their ballots since early voting began on extend the weekend hours.

More than 1.8 million Floridians - including more than 67,000 in Palm Beach County - had voted early as of 5 a.m. this morning, according to the state Division of Election's Web site.

But not everyone was pleased with Crist's demand.

Assistant Palm Beach County Administrator Brad Merriman, who has taken over as election supervisor, expressed shock at the governor's order.

With early voting now available from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m., staff and volunteer poll workers are already working long days, he said.

Immediately after receiving news of the order, Merriman said he would meet with elections staff to determine how to carry it out.

And here I thought Republicans were only about suppressing the vote.

---

* Counties vary as to availability of Sunday voting. We can vote on Sunday in Palm Beach but, for example, Martin, St. Lucie, and Brevard counties have not offered Sunday voting. This may change in light of the governor's order today.

Early voting is underway

The early voting period in Florida has begun, and it runs right up through Sunday, November 2. Preliminary reports are that turnout is heavy for the first day, and in at least one case in Palm Beach County, people actually camped out overnight to cast their votes.

In Wellington, people faced waits of an hour and 15 minutes at the village's municipal complex, where poll workers directed traffic and warned undeterred voters of the long line ahead. Parked cars lined both sides of the grassy shoulder of the road.

One woman said she had asked for the day off from work two months in advance. Others said they thought the lines would only get worse in the days ahead. Early voting for the Nov. 4 election runs until Nov. 2.

"There's just an excitement," said Tess Mackey, 38, of Royal Palm Beach, who came out with her husband, Bruce. Both were Democrats voting for presidential nominee Barack Obama.

"The lines are only going to get longer," said Bruce Mackey, predicting a high turnout for the election. "I think the numbers are going to be astronomical."

Some voters came armed not only with their voting cards, but pup tents too.

Twenty-eight-year-olds Crist Jarrett of Delray Beach and Nik Meredith of Boca Raton held a tailgate party and campout in the parking lot of the Southwest County Regional Library, one of 11 early voting spots in the county.

Anecdotal evidence: when I went to downtown Boynton Beach earlier today to try to snag tickets for the Obama appearance tomorrow, I personally saw a fairly long line, about 25 people long, outside the City Library there. (I most likely will be voting on Wednesday myself ...)

It's a terrific idea to vote early. You can do so at your convenience, even on the weekends, at multiple sites -- you don't have to vote in your precinct, just in your county -- and it frees you up to do volunteer work on Election Day! Help drive people to the polls, make phone calls, provide refreshments -- whatever suits you, your help is vital on November 4, and if you vote early, you can plan to be available to help out that day. I'll be a Voting Rights Attorney/Poll Watcher myself ... more to come on that, so stay tuned.

We're setting records and making history here, folks. Believe it.

Blast Off! Radio today at 4:00 pm EDT: Vote early and often

Okay, skip the "often" part. But "early," yeah, that's a pretty big deal.

Early voting starts today in Florida, and it's already been going on in a number of other states. Today on the show, we'll talk about the impact of early voting in Florida and elsewhere, as well as whether or not the Republicans' voter suppression efforts are going to have any real effect -- especially in light of the massive audiences Barack Obama is attracting. Plus, I'll talk a bit about the Thing That Pisses Me Off The Most right now: all the right-wing crap about ACORN. Give it a rest already, wingnuts!

Anyway, even more importantly, we'll talk about what you -- yes, you -- can do to help elect Democrats during the next two weeks -- hell, if they'll let me be a voting rights attorney, you can do pretty much anything you want. The point is: do something.

Oh, and I imagine I'll throw a few surprises -- and rants -- into the show as well. This is a crucial time to be aware politically, and spending an hour on this sucky radio show is as good a way to do it as anything I can think of ...

The best part of the show, though, as always, is when you call in or write in and participate. Really, it doesn't hurt, and it's actually kinda fun. Trust me. Here's how you do it:

TIME: 4:00 pm Eastern TODAY

Click here to listen

Call in number: (646) 716-7543

E-mail: blastoffradio-at-gmail-dot-com

We're just 15 days from the biggest election of our lives. Don't sit on the sidelines. Listen today, then go out and do.

Palm Beach County: where elections, like New Yorkers, go to die

Hard though it may be to believe, after eight years, we still can't get an election right in Palm Beach County. I've told you before about some of the recent problems, ranging from thousands of lost ballots to inadequate training of election personnel and more miscounted votes. And who can forget the "butterfly ballot" fiasco in 2000?

Well, as Ron Popeil might say, "But wait -- there's more!"

We've had a disputed and highly confrontational campaign and primary election here for circuit court. Normally, not national news, I know. But the ups and downs of this particular election have national implications, because the myriad problems encountered thus far do not give one confidence that November's national election will run smoothly.

County Commissioner Mary McCarty, who sits on the county elections canvassing board, said the situation is unfortunate but understandable.

"When you're dealing with this amount of paper and what they have to do to keep track of it all, I'm not surprised," she said. "It sounds like a simple matter, but as I've learned, it's much more complicated than people would imagine."

All agreed on one thing: Things don't look good for the upcoming presidential election.

With polls showing Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain in a dead heat, it is likely a recount will be triggered somewhere in the state. That could once again thrust Florida - and possibly the county - into the national limelight, as it was during the 2000 election debacle.

Instead of slightly more than 100,000 voters [in the August primary], on Nov. 4 elections officials expect 600,000 to flock to the polls. Further, the ballot will be two pages instead of one.

"More than 1 million pieces of paper?" said J. Reeve Bright, who is representing [circuit court challenger William] Abramson and also was involved in the litigation that swirled around the 2000 election. "We could not do a recount in the allotted time. I'm absolutely convinced of that."

This weekend's machine recount, for instance, was expected to be completed Saturday morning. However, what was expected to be a 90-minute final push dragged into six hours because of minor machine malfunctions and the necessity of running ballots back through machines to make sure counts were right.

The manual recount moved quickly. That's because the vast majority of ballots not read by the tabulators are either undervotes, people skipping the race, or overvotes, people voting for both candidates. Out of 9,000 reviewed by 10 teams of two people, fewer than two dozen went to the canvassing board. And of those, only seven produced votes.

McCarty, who has described the ballot counting fiasco as "embarrassing, humiliating and frustrating," said it also has been educational. But looking forward to the presidential election, she said she sees trouble.

"We're ready for November, but if there's a recount there's not a county in the state that will make the statutory deadline if they're doing it right."

It's true that the long-sought (by Democrats, anyway) "paper trail" will assist in the accuracy of future elections. However, the issue now really is two-fold: first, how can we guarantee the safety and "chain of custody" of the written ballots, and second, if there's not enough time to conduct a full and fair recount, do we face déjà vu all over again -- that is, a repeat of 2000?

This is no laughing matter -- Palm Beach County threatens to be another electoral battleground in November. And we're not ready. I'm sure the Republicans already have their Legal Assault Teams in place. Can the Democrats counter? And, more importantly, will they?

Florida: not ready for prime time

Well, this ought to put all of our minds at ease ... NOT.

According to Common Cause, Florida is one of several states whose myriad voting problems risk the validity of and confidence in the conduct of the November 4 election.

"It is unfortunate that even after the debacle of 2000, Florida continues to have many significant problems with its election administration system," said Ben Wilcox, Florida Common Cause president.

"We're going to have to cross our fingers that the huge turnout in the coming election doesn't overload our rickety system and end up disenfranchising voters."

Florida officials said the Common Cause report included incorrect and incomplete information and that the state is prepared to handle what is expected to be a major surge in voters.

The report examined voter registration, voter identification, voting machine allocation, poll worker recruitment and training, provisional ballots and other issues.

It said that Florida could mistakenly reject many eligible voters by requiring that prospective voters prove eligibility by providing the exact information that appears on existing state databases.

They're alluding, of course, to the law recently activated by Republican secretary of state Kurt Browning wherein even a minor typographical error in Tallahassee might disenfranchise any one of us ... especially those people who are targeted by this GOP master stroke: new voters, largely young, minority, and -- oh, yeah -- Democratic.

"Florida could mistakenly reject many eligible voters" ... don't you get it, Common Cause? That's exactly what the Republicans have in mind! The reason that "even after the debacle of 2000, Florida continues to have many significant problems with its election administration system" is because Republicans continue to game the system to make sure they do everything in their power to prevent lawfully registered voters -- Democrats -- from exercising their constitutional right. Since the Republicans can't win on the issues anymore, their only real option is disenfranchisement.

This is what passes for democracy in 2008, folks -- one party trying to fix elections in advance, any way they can. While in Michigan, the GOP in one large county outside Detroit is pushing to keep voters whose homes have foreclosed away from the polls -- thereby giving those folks a double whammy from the economic woes the Republican president's policies have caused! -- and the Obama campaign is challenging that practice, here in Florida ... crickets so far.

Republicans can't plausibly claim that this new law in Florida is intended for any purpose other than disenfranchisement of registered voters. No bleating about "accurate records" or "the need for certainty" can dress up their obvious ploy to fix the election. In other words ... you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

So there.

Here we go again: more election problems in Palm Beach County

I'm running out of clever blog post titles to describe the mess that is Palm Beach County when it comes to elections.

We thought we were out of the woods when the Legislature approved paper ballots to replace those horrendous touchscreen systems (granted, in the same bill that created a shitstorm when Florida's primaries were moved to January 29), but obviously that's not the case. At least, it's not when someone manages to lose 3,500 ballots in a race for county circuit court. That amounts to 3% of all ballots cast.

During the recount, election workers who weren't necessarily computer-savvy entered the ballots into the machines. [County commissioner and canvassing board member Mary] McCarty acknowledges there were problems.

"We don't believe anyone stole (the missing ballots), but I believe they might have gotten mixed up, maybe some boxes were mixed up. The machine recount was going really fast, all the machines were going, guys pulling boxes off the shelf, putting boxes back on the shelf. I just don't know what happened.

"One thing's for sure: 3,000 ballots didn't walk out of one precinct. We have different ballot counts in many precincts in the county. There's something in the system that needs to be fixed."

Phil Foster, a Sequoia Voting Systems executive, said proper checks and balances weren't in place to track the ballots.

"Just what I've seen today, it's quite confusing," he said.

Sequoia sent a crew late last week to re-create the election in hopes of figuring out what went wrong.

McCarty said it will take weeks to unravel.

"We will get to the bottom of this," she said. "And then find out what people to point fingers at and whose fault it was."

I guess we should be grateful Diebold isn't involved. But whether it's malfeasance or incompetence, something's gotta give. One time, maybe even two times, sure -- human error or machine malfunction, I get that. However, we're developing a pattern here -- a very dangerous pattern of mistakes as we approach the most important federal election of our lifetimes.

Heckuva job, Palm Beach County elections officials. Heckuva job.

What I did today

Well, let's see. I was interviewed by the Palm Beach Post, I voted (early voting in the Florida primary), and I begged for money. Among other things.

All in all, a productive day.

Off to Jr.'s birthday party in Melbourne tomorrow, then to Tampa for football, then a short night's sleep before flying to Denver Sunday morning. Blogging may be light till Sunday, so thanks in advance for your patience.

And your donations.

More trouble with voting in Palm Beach County

Hard to believe, I know ... but Palm Beach County is having difficulty implementing their new voting system for the early voting period that began yesterday.

Martin and St. Lucie counties reported a smooth day at the polls, but voters at Palm Beach County's eight early-voting sites experienced delays ranging from a few minutes to 30 minutes or longer. Much of the wait occurred while poll workers verified voters' identities and precinct information, using laptop computers to connect to the state's database.

"I don't know how this is going to work when there's a lot of people here," voter Erica Nichols said after waiting for her ballot at Wellington Village Hall.

"I'm hoping it was Day One jitters," said Barbara Cheives of West Palm Beach after it took her about 20 minutes to get a ballot at the county's main elections office. Problems with her mother's ballot meant that the whole voting experience took 55 minutes even though few voters had shown up, Cheives said.

Besides the state's database glitch, some voters also reported problems with the county's new instant-ballot printers, along with a cumbersome process meant to ensure voters get the correct ballot.

Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said he was "extremely disappointed" with the delays caused by the state's database, "but it is something that is fully outside of our control."

Walton County in the Panhandle caused the problem with the 10.6-million-voter database, said Jennifer Krell Davis, a spokeswoman for Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning. She said Walton's system kept continuously reconciling its data instead of stopping when the updates were complete, thereby taking up an inordinate amount of memory in the state system.

Okay, fine, so we can blame Walton County for the database problem. Fair enough. But then why were things so smooth in Martin and St. Lucie counties?

Most counties avoided delays by using their own electronic records to check in voters at early voting sites, Davis said.

But Palm Beach County's voter database is set up so that elections officials must go through the state's voter registration system before getting access to the county's voter file, Davis said. She said it's the only county in the state with such a system.

Anderson said his system is set up that way because the state provides the most up-to-date information on voters who may have moved from one county to another.

Aha. Right. We're the only county that goes through the state system to check records. Wonderful.

Um, don't you think, Arthur, that rather than rely on a state system that might be glitchy or slow, we could be like every other county in the state and have our own system? I find it difficult to believe that we gain so much by our linkage to the state when no other county does that ...

Meanwhile, we're already having problems with the new instant-ballot printers and the optical scan machines? Having a paper trail was supposed to help election accuracy, not bog it down!

Look, Palm Beach County has been the laughingstock of elections since 2000. Haven't we had enough time to get it right? It's embarrassing, it's ridiculous, and if it screws up the fall election again, there's going to be hell to pay.

Can't anyone here run an election?

I've asked that question before but, of course, it's a common question in Palm Beach County.

This time, in a city commission election in West Palm Beach this past week, some 700 votes originally weren't counted, and were added into the results only after an audit to test the accuracy and reliability of the new optical-scan voting system. The election was considered a key test of the new system.

[Runner-up Gregg] Weiss said he is considering asking for a public inspection of all 4,792 ballots but will first try to talk with Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson about the issue. As of Friday evening, he hadn't received a return phone call, he said.

"Woo-hoo. I'm going to have to go out and celebrate tonight, I guess," he said, referring to his new second-place finish. "Are they sure they got them all?"

During the audit in the two days after the election, three cartridges containing vote totals were labeled "suspended," meaning their votes hadn't been counted on election night when all the cartridges were brought to a tabulation center to be "read" by vote-counting machines, said elections office spokeswoman Kathy Adams.

After the audit, they were read and the votes were added to the totals. The cartridges were secure and accounted for at all times, Adams said.

In the end, the system worked the way it was supposed to, she said. The results posted on the elections office Web site and on the county's cable TV channel are unofficial until after the audit, she noted.

"That's why it's marked unofficial, because when they do the audit, they find out if anything was not included," Adams said.

She said the office didn't know why the cartridges weren't read properly the first time. She said it was possible that one reader wasn't working properly and that all three cartridges were read by that reader.

"That's one of the things that they're researching now," she said. "That was the fortunate part of being able to have an election like this, before the primary."

Well, yes, there's always an audit. But in a place like Palm Beach County, where election results are scrutinized carefully because of, um, past history, isn't it doubly important to have a system that works the first time? Doesn't exactly give one confidence going into the August primary and November general election, does it?

Florida voter suppression law remains valid, says federal judge

Even in its revised version, the law still sucks. But a federal court upheld it yesterday.

I'm referring to the Florida Legislature's latest attempt to keep undesirables (read: Democrats) from voting by requiring onerous identity checks at the polls. Naturally, the people most affected by the law will be lower-income people and minorities, both of whom tend to vote Democratic.

A federal judge has refused to block a new version of a Florida voter registration law that critics say could keep thousands of people from casting ballots this year.

U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle issued the ruling Tuesday in Gainesville. Last year, he granted a preliminary injunction against an earlier version of the law. He was reversed on appeal and the Legislature modified the law.

Both versions require elections officials to match Social Security, state identification or driver license numbers listed on voter registration applications with numbers in government databases.

"This ruling puts thousands of real Florida citizens at risk this November based on bureaucratic typos," lawyer Justin Levitt said Wednesday.

Levitt represents the Florida Conference of the National Association of Colored People and other groups challenging the law.

Under the new version, if the state is unable to match a number, an applicant can still register by providing verification of either his or her driver license, identity card or Social Security number regardless of which one was entered on the application.

Let's not kid ourselves. This bill was narrowly tailored for one reason: to provide a constitutionally valid way to limit access to the polls. You know, if the Repukes can't have their poll taxes or literacy tests, they'll take the next best thing.

This is heinous, it's craven, and it's a shame that Judge Mickle has decided to let it stand. I applauded him for rejecting the earlier version of the law, but the right to vote is perhaps the most dear -- basically, it's what makes us Americans. And limiting that right for specious reasons, as here, therefore is a greater assault on American liberty.

Call me breathless, say I'm overreacting ... but come back to this post in November and remember how Our Legislature found a way to skew the election long before then.

You've got mail ... or not

So far, I still haven't seen a convincing argument not to conduct a mail-in revote for Florida's Democratic primary*. Today's paper brings us an argument against (but, conspicuously, not one for) from Oregon, where mail-in voting has been conducted for years.

Oregon has the distinction of being the only state to do all of its voting by mail, and by all accounts the system is a success.

In 1998, voters approved doing away with polling places. In 2000, the state held its first primary and general presidential elections by mail.

The Oregon system has some critics. They include Lynn Snodgrass, a former Oregon state representative who believes she lost a race for secretary of state partly because of her opposition to the mandatory vote-by-mail program.

Snodgrass said people who vote at home are subject to pressure. A husband or wife might be forced to vote a certain way, she said. Or, she said, nursing home residents or college students might be urged by caregivers or classmates to vote for a certain candidate.

"My biggest problem is with the whole lack of privacy," she said.

According to the Oregon secretary of state, only a few instances of voter fraud have been reported since the state adopted voting by mail.

It's clear that most voters like the system.

In the 2004 presidential election, voter turnout in Oregon was about 70 percent, 10 percent higher than the national figure.

"We were fairly skeptical about vote-by-mail at first ... but the benefits far outweighed our concerns," said Marge Easley, president of the League of Women Voters of Oregon. Today, she said, "we're big proponents."

Along with getting more people to vote, the Oregon system gives voters more time to make decisions, Easley and other supporters say.

Oh, puh-leez, Ms. Snodgrass. Let's go over once again three main objections to mail-in voting:

1. It might disenfranchise voters.

How would mail-in voting disenfranchise voters more than not having an election at all? At least in Florida's case right now, that seems to be the choice: mail-in or nothing. In my mind, it's better to have a mail-in election than nothing -- even if you think mail-in disenfranchises some voters (and I do not believe that), how would it disenfranchise voters more than a standard election? Or, for that matter, no election at all, which would disenfranchise everyone?

2. It is subject to fraud.

One word: Diebold. Every election is open to fraud, and there are plenty of safeguards in Oregon's system that could be implemented here just as easily.

3. The Snodgrass argument: "people who vote at home are subject to [greater] pressure and less privacy."

How are you any more subject to pressure at home than in a standard polling place? How do you have less privacy? You could execute and send the ballot by yourself, if you were concerned about privacy. You would be as likely to have discussions at the polling place as you enter as you would at home. This argument is completely ridiculous.

Again, I fail to see any legitimate reason not to conduct a mail-in revote. There may be legal or logisitical obstacles, but the rationale advanced by opponents of the idea just doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

---

* I admit that I have not had time to research state law on the subject, so for the purposes of this post, I will assume that mail-in primary elections are permissible under Florida law.

We still matter. Go vote.

You've heard all the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over the Democratic Party's threat to withhold Florida's delegates at the nominating convention in August. This might cause you to think that today's Democratic primary is meaningless, and therefore, why bother voting?

Nothing could be further from the truth.

First of all, according to party rules, the final decision on whether delegations are seated is made not by party officials, but by the putative nominee. Rest assured that John Edwards or Hillarack Obanton would never risk alienating the voters of a large, crucial swing state by following some stupid party threat. The delegates will be seated, and they will cast their votes in Denver. Trust me.

But, for the sake of discussion, let's take a worst-case scenario: they follow the dictates of the party and America's Wang™ gets shut out of the process.* Don't think for a second that the media would ignore us. Whoever wins Florida wins a lot of coverage, and therefore a huge dose of momentum, going into SuperDuperMegaFantastic (or whatever) Tuesday next week ... enough, perhaps, to decide the nomination.

So, to make a long story, um, marginally less long: Florida matters. Your vote matters. If you haven't done so already, go cast that vote.

---

* Although my recent personal history indicates that this metaphor is a little too close to the truth, I'm going to be brave and stick with it. So there.

Paper ballots for Broward

The good news is that Broward County (which includes Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and environs) will be getting paper ballots in 2008.

The bad news is that the county has contracted with ES&S, notorious for past election foul-ups, including the mess in Sarasota County where 18,000 missing votes may have contributed to the "victory" by Republican Vern Buchanan over Democrat Christine Jennings in the 2006 congressional election.

In a no-bid contract, Broward commissioners agreed earlier this year to buy the equipment from Election Systems & Software -- the same company that in 2002 provided the touch-screen voting machines that are now being replaced in both Miami-Dade and Broward. Broward still owes about $8 million of the $20 million those machines cost.

Election activist Ellen Brodsky asked commissioners why they were willing to pay $5.4 million to a company whose equipment had been inadequate in the past.

Commissioners said the contract made financial sense. "It would be extremely expensive for us to use anyone other than ES&S," Commissioner Ken Keechl said.

The optical-scan machines will be used in the August primary and in the November 2008 presidential election. Voters will fill in ovals on paper ballots, then feed them into machines.

The new equipment will have a paper record that election experts can consult if a recount is needed, said Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes. As of January, her will start random audits of the equipment.

Yep, we have to save money, so if we have to get machines from a company whose record is spotty at best, well, so be it. That's the Florida way. Hell, I think that's the American way.

But, looking at the bright side, this is certainly a step in the right direction. A paper trail doesn't make election fraud impossible, but it makes it less likely, and that's probably the best we can hope for in 2008.

More election fun in Palm Beach County

The home of the infamous butterfly ballot continues to have problems.

Just one day after Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson announced that Palm Beach County may have to defy the new state law requiring a paper trail for voting because of prohibitive costs, he discovered that, oops, his math was a little off.

It turns out Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson's estimate of $1.25 a page to print optical-scan ballots - a figure that helped launch county commissioners into civil-disobedience mode and caused the state's top elections official to voice disbelief - was more than triple the actual cost, Anderson said Wednesday.

Anderson, slated to discuss his budget again with commissioners next week, said his office is crunching numbers and expects to come up with a "significant reduction" from the preliminary $5.9 million request for county tax money he presented to the commission Tuesday.

The county can get paper ballots printed and delivered for 40 cents a page, said Laurence Davenport, director of business affairs for the elections office, after getting a price quote Wednesday from vendor Sequoia Voting Systems.

That lops $1.36 million off the $2 million printing estimate Anderson gave commissioners the day before.

Anderson also told the board Tuesday he needs $3.9 million worth of new equipment to make the transition from paperless electronic voting to Florida's newly mandated system of paper ballots read by optical scanners. On Wednesday, the elections chief said that figure should come down, but he did not specify an amount.

Whew. Looks like Palm Beach County actually can comply with state law. How nice. I guess we've avoided another laughingstock elections incident ... for now.