Here we go again — Florida, home of the hanging chads, and in particular
Palm Beach County, inventor of the “butterfly ballot,” has created another
election mess just as a tight finish for president — in the nation and in
all-important Florida — is approaching quickly.
The Palm Beach Post reports that 27,000 filled-out absentee ballots in Palm
Beach County were improperly printed and cannot be read by tabulation machines. So, in
another one of those high-tech solutions for which Florida election officials
are famous, the votes cast on all those ballots will be copied by hand onto
properly laid-out ballots.
Representatives from both the Obama and Romney campaigns will be present, watching
for signs of trouble. But with just 527 votes deciding the Florida presidential
outcome in the disputed election of 2000, the prospect for errors in a
27,000-ballot recounting project seems frightening.
the risk of making a mistake, particularly with 27,000 ballots,” former Florida
Secretary of State Kurt Browning — whose job included overseeing the state’s
elections bureaucracy — told The Palm Beach Post.
statewide co-chair of Lawyers for Romney, objected last week to the process
that county Election Supervisor Susan Bucher had designed for the hand-copying,
saying it didn’t follow state law, The Post reported. “She’s inventing a procedure,”
Rodriguez said.
Florida (and Michigan and countless other states) did not learn one of the
basic lessons of 2000: Election officials should not be chosen for office in
partisan elections, and they should not be allowed to delve into partisan
politics.
overseeing the ballot recreation process, is a former Democratic member of the
state House.
you’re going to have a ballot-counting controversy, stick with the chads.
