Word: balloters
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...seemed like a strange little sideshow, barely worth noticing. But now both candidates are realizing that the sideshow could potentially decide the election. A lawsuit--filed not by Al Gore but by an Altamonte Springs personal-injury lawyer--demands that the county throw out some 15,000 absentee ballots because of alleged fraud. That would give Gore a net gain of about 5,000 votes, more than enough to win the White House. The plaintiff, a Democrat named Harry Jacobs, charges that because G.O.P. workers were allowed to fill in blanks on thousands of absentee-ballot applications last October, none...
...Seminole case is scheduled to be heard by Judge Nikki Clark on Wednesday in Tallahassee. But it was in the making well before Election Day, when Republican operatives realized that the firm they hired to print ballot applications had accidentally left off the voter ID numbers required by state law. (Both parties in Florida mailed out thousands of partly completed applications for members to sign and return--a little end run around voter apathy.) In Seminole, when elections supervisor Sandra Goard noticed the omission, she put the forms in a pile to be tossed. But in mid-October, a G.O.P...
Given Florida's tough laws governing absentee ballots (instituted in 1998, after fraud led to the removal of a Miami mayor), it seems dubious to let party operatives tinker with signed ballot applications. But the proposed remedy--throwing out all 15,000 ballots--seems extreme. The Democrats "have a strong case if we insist on following technicalities," says University of Miami law professor Mary Coombs. "But ultimately the application went out to the right person, who ended up being able to vote for whom he wanted. Tossing out the ballots seems to be a very peculiar remedy for the harm...
...Judge Clark finds for the Democrats, her decision could be appealed to the state supreme court, which hinted Friday about how it might respond. In an opinion denying a Palm Beach revote request, the court said a ballot must be "in substantial noncompliance" to justify an extreme remedy...
During the next four years, we should all contact our local election officials and demand that an accurate voting process be put in place. It might be expensive and would probably include massive voter-education drives and an improved ballot design. But in whatever manner our vote is submitted, it must be accurately counted the first time and not be subject to interpretation. BILL WATT Columbus...