Don't Blame the Governor, or the Rest of Our Counties
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From: St. Pete, Florida
Don't Blame the Governor, or the Rest of Our Counties
Broward official apologizes for voting mess
By THOMAS C. TOBIN
St. Petersburg Times
September 20, 2002
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Ending a standoff, Broward County's election supervisor accepted the blame Thursday for problems with last week's primary and agreed to use up to 1,000 county workers to avoid further problems in the Nov. 5 general election.
"I've fallen short in the office when it comes to management," Miriam Oliphant told county commissioners Thursday, adopting a humbler pose that had state and local officials breathing easier.
Oliphant apologized for the problems and said it was time "to make things right." Her defiant stance in recent days -- refusing help and blaming others for problems on Sept. 10 -- had triggered a power struggle that delayed solutions and threatened to taint yet another Florida election, just six weeks away.
Gov. Jeb Bush, who has the authority to suspend Oliphant for malfeasance, applauded Oliphant's change of heart.
"I think that was a major breakthrough and I appreciate the supervisor's willingness to bring in reinforcements so she can carry out the election," he said.
The rookie supervisor, who was running her first big election last week, is the second-highest-paid county elections official in the state, earning $122,446.
Elected in November 2000, her move toward a modernized election system has been marred by tussles with the county commissioners who control her budget.
The mood also was brighter in Miami-Dade, where senior county officials met with Secretary of State Jim Smith to outline how they planned to avoid another election meltdown on Nov. 5.
Smith said he was impressed with the county's plan to have three "intensively trained" county employees at each polling place on Election Day. About 1,700 county employees will be involved.
"Miami-Dade is well on its way to having a very successful November election," said Smith, the state's top elections official. "I very much commend the leadership of Dade for taking responsibility."
The friendly words from Bush and Smith contrasted with their sharp-tongued statements in recent days. They said Miami-Dade and Broward had ruined the election for the rest of Florida and asked the U.S. Attorney General's Office to intervene.
In a letter to Bush on Thursday, Miami-Dade County Manager Steve Shiver said he preferred the new tone over "the adversarial approach we experienced earlier."
Across the state, there was relief that no more time will be consumed by postelection feuds.
"They have a little over six weeks to get this thing turned around," said Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Kurt Browning, who used the same touch screen system as the two South Florida counties, but without problems.
"They can do it, but they're going to have to bust it, and it'll be the worst six weeks of their life," he said. "Somebody's going to have to say, "This is the way we do it.' You can't feel good about this thing. It's not going to be like sitting around the fire and singing Kumbaya."
Even well-prepared counties that had good primaries will be hard-pressed to get their work done by Nov. 5, said Hillsborough County elections supervisor Pam Iorio, noting that the general election will have a larger turnout.
Broward and Miami-Dade will have to train poll workers every day in October to be ready in time, she said. "Every day matters."
In reports sent to Bush on Thursday, both South Florida counties explained for the first time just how flawed their elections were.
The primary problem: Undertrained poll workers took too long to start touch screen machines. They improperly kept polls closed until the machines were up and running, neglecting to offer voters a paper ballot. At the end of the day, workers failed to properly harvest votes from the machines.
The problems kept a close gubernatorial primary between Democrats Bill McBride and Janet Reno in doubt for a week.
In Broward, more than 300 poll workers failed to show up on Election Day, Oliphant said in her report. Some refused to stay late after Bush extended voting hours, saying they wanted more money.
Twenty-four polling places opened late and 35 failed to stay open until 9 p.m., she said.
Nearly 200 touch screen machines malfunctioned, according to Oliphant, who gave Bush a copy of her stern letter to the machines' manufacturer, Election Systems & Software.
The shortcomings included "a calibration problem" in some machines that had voters selecting one candidate and the screen displaying another.
Oliphant's solutions will include automated 5 a.m. wakeup calls for poll workers on Nov. 5 and more training for all poll workers who had problems. She also has asked fellow supervisors Gertrude Walker of St. Lucie County and Ion Sancho of Leon County to conduct a "peer review" of her office.
Under her deal with the Broward commission, Oliphant will remain elections supervisor, largely as a figurehead, and will hire a new lieutenant for operations.
Her office will count the votes, but the county will be responsible for training poll workers on Broward's new touch screen voting machines and closing polls.
A major problem with Oliphant's training before Sept. 10 was lack of hands-on experience with the new machines, said Willis Holcombe, president of Broward Community College and a member of a task force that will suggest improvements.
"There was a lot of talking and lectures, reading from a manual," he said. "You have to be able to touch the things."
In Miami, where many of the problems have been well-documented, only a few new details emerged from County Manager Shiver's report to Bush. Among them: At least two polling places were still not open by 1:40 p.m. on Sept. 10.
Shiver said there were no excuses for the problems. He told the governor: "We look forward to working with you."
By THOMAS C. TOBIN
St. Petersburg Times
September 20, 2002
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ending a standoff, Broward County's election supervisor accepted the blame Thursday for problems with last week's primary and agreed to use up to 1,000 county workers to avoid further problems in the Nov. 5 general election.
"I've fallen short in the office when it comes to management," Miriam Oliphant told county commissioners Thursday, adopting a humbler pose that had state and local officials breathing easier.
Oliphant apologized for the problems and said it was time "to make things right." Her defiant stance in recent days -- refusing help and blaming others for problems on Sept. 10 -- had triggered a power struggle that delayed solutions and threatened to taint yet another Florida election, just six weeks away.
Gov. Jeb Bush, who has the authority to suspend Oliphant for malfeasance, applauded Oliphant's change of heart.
"I think that was a major breakthrough and I appreciate the supervisor's willingness to bring in reinforcements so she can carry out the election," he said.
The rookie supervisor, who was running her first big election last week, is the second-highest-paid county elections official in the state, earning $122,446.
Elected in November 2000, her move toward a modernized election system has been marred by tussles with the county commissioners who control her budget.
The mood also was brighter in Miami-Dade, where senior county officials met with Secretary of State Jim Smith to outline how they planned to avoid another election meltdown on Nov. 5.
Smith said he was impressed with the county's plan to have three "intensively trained" county employees at each polling place on Election Day. About 1,700 county employees will be involved.
"Miami-Dade is well on its way to having a very successful November election," said Smith, the state's top elections official. "I very much commend the leadership of Dade for taking responsibility."
The friendly words from Bush and Smith contrasted with their sharp-tongued statements in recent days. They said Miami-Dade and Broward had ruined the election for the rest of Florida and asked the U.S. Attorney General's Office to intervene.
In a letter to Bush on Thursday, Miami-Dade County Manager Steve Shiver said he preferred the new tone over "the adversarial approach we experienced earlier."
Across the state, there was relief that no more time will be consumed by postelection feuds.
"They have a little over six weeks to get this thing turned around," said Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Kurt Browning, who used the same touch screen system as the two South Florida counties, but without problems.
"They can do it, but they're going to have to bust it, and it'll be the worst six weeks of their life," he said. "Somebody's going to have to say, "This is the way we do it.' You can't feel good about this thing. It's not going to be like sitting around the fire and singing Kumbaya."
Even well-prepared counties that had good primaries will be hard-pressed to get their work done by Nov. 5, said Hillsborough County elections supervisor Pam Iorio, noting that the general election will have a larger turnout.
Broward and Miami-Dade will have to train poll workers every day in October to be ready in time, she said. "Every day matters."
In reports sent to Bush on Thursday, both South Florida counties explained for the first time just how flawed their elections were.
The primary problem: Undertrained poll workers took too long to start touch screen machines. They improperly kept polls closed until the machines were up and running, neglecting to offer voters a paper ballot. At the end of the day, workers failed to properly harvest votes from the machines.
The problems kept a close gubernatorial primary between Democrats Bill McBride and Janet Reno in doubt for a week.
In Broward, more than 300 poll workers failed to show up on Election Day, Oliphant said in her report. Some refused to stay late after Bush extended voting hours, saying they wanted more money.
Twenty-four polling places opened late and 35 failed to stay open until 9 p.m., she said.
Nearly 200 touch screen machines malfunctioned, according to Oliphant, who gave Bush a copy of her stern letter to the machines' manufacturer, Election Systems & Software.
The shortcomings included "a calibration problem" in some machines that had voters selecting one candidate and the screen displaying another.
Oliphant's solutions will include automated 5 a.m. wakeup calls for poll workers on Nov. 5 and more training for all poll workers who had problems. She also has asked fellow supervisors Gertrude Walker of St. Lucie County and Ion Sancho of Leon County to conduct a "peer review" of her office.
Under her deal with the Broward commission, Oliphant will remain elections supervisor, largely as a figurehead, and will hire a new lieutenant for operations.
Her office will count the votes, but the county will be responsible for training poll workers on Broward's new touch screen voting machines and closing polls.
A major problem with Oliphant's training before Sept. 10 was lack of hands-on experience with the new machines, said Willis Holcombe, president of Broward Community College and a member of a task force that will suggest improvements.
"There was a lot of talking and lectures, reading from a manual," he said. "You have to be able to touch the things."
In Miami, where many of the problems have been well-documented, only a few new details emerged from County Manager Shiver's report to Bush. Among them: At least two polling places were still not open by 1:40 p.m. on Sept. 10.
Shiver said there were no excuses for the problems. He told the governor: "We look forward to working with you."
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From: Austin
Nearly 200 touch screen machines malfunctioned, according to Oliphant, who gave Bush a copy of her stern letter to the machines' manufacturer, Election Systems & Software.
