International Election Monitors Take on Florida

[Bombtrack]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - An international group that usually monitors elections in developing democracies said Monday it would take up posts at Florida precincts in November in hopes of averting another debacle when voters pick the next U.S. president.

Four years after Florida became the object of international ridicule, officials for the Catholic group Pax Christi USA will place monitors from 30 countries at polls in four Florida counties that were at the center of the 2000 U.S. presidential election dispute.

The Washington-based group will ask its international organization to send monitors to Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Duval counties, where voting irregularities kept the outcome of the 2000 presidential race in doubt for more than month.

The national coordinator for Pax Christi USA, Dave Robinson, said Florida's 2000 election woes were symbolic of errors across the United States that disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters.

``Normally, Americans go to developing nations to ensure fair, transparent and free elections,'' Robinson said.

``We felt it was necessary to bring our friends from other parts of the world to the United States to bear witness in order that we might have a fair transparent and free elections.''

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said equating Florida's election system with that of a Third World country was insulting. He also said Florida had put in place machinery and voter education programs that made it a model for the nation.

``This is all part of some politically motivated thing that tries to scare people to somehow think their vote is not going to count,'' Bush said. ``That's hogwash, hogwash.''

Florida voters split down the middle in the Nov. 7, 2000, election, spawning court battles over whether and how to count imperfect ballots. The battle went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and George W. Bush was eventually declared the winner by 537 votes, which put him in the White House.

Florida has banished the balky punchcard ballots that made a household word of ``chad,'' the bits of cardboard dislodged when the cards were punched.

Florida counties now use paper ballots that are penciled in like standardized tests and read via optical scanners, or electronic touch-screen machines similar to automated bank teller machines.

Some counties have had glitches with the latter. U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat, filed a federal lawsuit on Monday asking a judge to order ballot printers that would produce a paper record in the 15 counties that use touch-screen machines. Without them, he said, there is no way to conduct a manual recount.

(Reuters just prints in sentances, not paragraphs)

[fujiyama]

1. Good..

but they can't catch Diebold...

"Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said equating Florida's election system with that of a Third World country was insulting. He also said Florida had put in place machinery and voter education programs that made it a model for the nation."

They sure did "fix" it allright.

Basically he's saying -- "We've got it gamed"

[Bombtrack]

3. If you want to forfeit states or countys with new voting machines,

from diebold or ES+S then you forfiet the election

I'm sick of these double standards from all these "Florida is unwinnable" paranoids. Many of whom say that Ohio is what should be focused on, when in fact Ohio is the headquarters of diebold and has a Bush loyal GOP governor and sec of state and was promised to Bush by Diebolds chairman.

The democratic party and the left is going to prevent these doomsday scenarios you people have in your head. And even if it doesn't, there's nothing to show it more likely in Florida than any other red state you say a higher priority should be put on. 2000 was not about bbv. It was about a 1 time purge list we don't know many people were hurt by, but somewhere between 1 - 40,000, and it was about interference in a RECOUNT

[fujiyama]

4. Oh..

By no means do I mean we should forfiet the state -- We just shouldn't bet EVERYTHING on it.

I've made many posts talking about how big a chunk of the electoral map it is -- 27 votes, meaning it's almost 10% and that means we definetely can't ignore it.

[Bombtrack]

6. the party isn't going to bet everything on any state

I'm just saying that it is the biggest swingstate, and unlike Ohio or the midwest in general really, there is one really great vp choice from it, and that's Bob Graham.

And chosing a vp from Ohio and or midwest wouldn't be "betting it all on" the midwest either, and there aren't even any good ones from there. Gephardt and Vilsack and Bayh are all terrible choices for different reasons.

[fujiyama]

8. I really think...

we are mostly in agreement...I'm a bit cynical about the reliability in Florida -- if we were to win it, we'd have to win it big.

I myself don't really have a problem with Graham, and if he could deliver Florida for sure, I'd take him in a second. After all if we win Florida, we can even afford to lose a few Gore states. I'd prefer him over Gephardt, and definetely over Bayh.

[pnorman]

2. "Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said equating Florida's election system

with that of a Third World country was insulting." Yes, it WAS insulting ... to a third world country.

pnorman
STAND UP, KEEP FIGHTING http://shows.implex.tv/wellstone

[Zhade]

5. Misleading statement in the article.

Note the clever diction at work here:

Florida counties now use paper ballots that are penciled in like standardized tests and read via optical scanners, or electronic touch-screen machines similar to automated bank teller machines.

Similar to ATMs, eh? Sure - except that every ATM transaction gives the user the option of A PAPER RECORD OF THAT TRANSACTION.

DREs, of course, lack this vital component. Funny, Diebold makes ATMs, yet the paper trail is conspicuously absent in their voting machines.

As one poster puts it best, PAPER BALLOTS, NOT VAPOR BALLOTS!

[Bombtrack]

7. I believe that people like Wexler and Graham will be successful

at requiring more reliable voting equipment and practices before the election