Secretary of state tries to calm voters

[Freddie Stubbs]

Secretary of State Glenda Hood hopes for a scandal-free election in November, even as she acknowledges a swirl of questions about the state's new voting machines.

BY LESLEY CLARK

[e-mail]


Amid controversy over touch-screen voting machines and a purge of felons from the voting rolls, Secretary of State Glenda Hood sought on Thursday to reassure anxious voters that 2004 won't be a rehash of the 2000 presidential debacle.

Hood, addressing the League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade County, said she has ''great confidence'' that the state's 67 elections supervisors are ready for the November election -- and the scrutiny that will accompany it.

''I want the attention to be on Florida, but I always want it to be in a positive way,'' she said.

But Hood acknowledged her office is investigating a voting machine glitch in Miami-Dade County, which she said was not properly reported to the state.

more: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/8779323.htm?is_rd=Y&ERIGHTS=7802435371854558945miami

[DBoon]

1. Who is being purged?

There needs to be some visibility to this. If the State won't tell people well in advance of the elections, Floridians need to apply pressure.

Purging voters from the rolls in secret makes a mockery of democratic elections.

[whistle]

2. Glenda Hood was the reThuglican mayor of Orlando FL....

...for over ten years and she can not be trusted. Nothing Glenda says can be taken at face value. So when she states that, "...(she) hopes for a scandal-free election in November", what she really means is that the purges are going to proceed as scheduled, as many democratic voters will be disenfranchised as possible to assure republican victories and that all of this will be swept under the rug and non-traceable and any opposition will be neutralized so that there can be NO SCANDAL! What Florida needs is to have all of the electable reThuglican politician's swept from office this November. Amen.