Florida: Lines long, patience short

October 25, 2008

By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post

Early voting - or trying to vote early - has become one of the most popular pastimes in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.

For the fourth day in a row, Palm Beach County voters on Thursday turned out in record numbers at the 11 early polling locations, Assistant County Administrator Brad Merriman said.

Merriman expected to see some drop-off after about 7,300 turned out Monday. Instead, he has seen more people stand in line - some for up to two hours - to cast ballots. Preliminary reports showed nearly 9,000 people voted Thursday.

What it means for weekend voting is unclear.In the low-turnout Aug. 26 primary, far fewer people voted on the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday than on the other 11 days of early voting. But voters turned out in force on the final weekend.

In August, however, the White House wasn't on the line. And there weren't free bus rides to the polls.

Rallies, some featuring food and music and all featuring free bus rides, are planned Saturday at parks in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Riviera Beach, South Bay and Fort Pierce.

The crush at the polls has inflamed some voters, and a group of federal politicians on Thursday asked top state officials to step in to help get the lines moving.

In a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist and Secretary of State Kurt Browning, Democratic members of the state congressional delegation asked that elections offices be ordered to extend their hours.

They want polling places open on Sundays in all counties; Palm Beach now offers Sunday voting, but Martin and St. Lucie do not. They also asked that the state help swamped offices get additional equipment, help identify and train more poll workers and, if necessary, give elections offices extra money to reduce wait times.

"We must do whatever we can to reduce the overall stress on the voting system during early voting and on Election Day," they wrote. The letter was signed by nine Democrats including Sen. Bill Nelson and Reps. Alcee Hastings and Ron Klein.

Except in emergencies, a spokeswoman for Browning said, neither the secretary nor the governor has the power to order elections offices to extend their hours or tell them how to run the elections.

The spokeswoman, Jennifer Krell Davis, urged people to take a deep breath.

Early voting was instituted as a convenient alternative to voting on Election Day. People also can request absentee ballots until Wednesday.

"There's still plenty of opportunities to vote," she said.

As a practical matter, Merriman said there is no way to open additional locations. Each site needs at least one ballot printer and none is available, he said.

Martin County Elections Supervisor Vicki Davis said she opted to keep the five polling locations open for eight hours Saturday rather than four hours Saturday and four hours Sunday, as permitted under state law. That should give those who work regular hours plenty of time to vote, she said.

Lines in Martin County are moving quickly, she said. "We are processing every voter within 10 to 15 minutes, tops," she said.

Recognizing that voters in Palm Beach County aren't as lucky, Merriman said he may follow the lead of Miami-Dade and Broward counties and use the elections Web site to post wait times at each of the early voting sites.

"The problem is getting it in real time to make it accurate and meaningful to people," he said.

He doesn't want to tell people they will have to wait 20 minutes, only to have them show up to find out that a paper jam in a ballot printer has delayed voting for an hour.

"We're kicking it around and seeing if we can make it work," he said.

Although lines remain long, they are moving faster than earlier in the week. "We've gotten more and more efficient," he said.

For voters seeking to avoid long lines, luck appears to be as important as timing.

Renee Waldman of Wellington said she went home without voting at Wellington Village Hall on Thursday morning after being told it would take at least two hours.

Two hours later, at about noon, voters were in and out in about 40 minutes.

"The workers all were wonderful," Gerry Tuttle of Lake Worth said after casting her ballot at the village hall. "Everything went well."

Tuttle said she was glad to get it over with.

"It's going to be a mess come Nov. 4."

Source: Palm Beah Post