My goodness! I wonder who made the call? ____________________________________ This weekend, the Florida Democratic Party Chair Bob Poe received a call on his cell phone telling him to send in his absentee ballot in on November 10th, five days after the election. Poe sent a letter on Saturday to Attorney General John Ashcroft asking for his swift attention to this matter. From Poe's letter: "Yesterday afternoon I received a call from an individual who urged me to cast my absentee ballot on November 10th - even though the general election is on Tuesday, November 5th. From the background noise it appears that the call was being made from a call center. When I questioned the caller about the November 10th election date, he was adamant that I wasn't to cast my absentee ballot until November 10th. When I inquired about whom he was making the call for, he said "the McBride campaign" - apparently unaware he was speaking with the chair of the Florida Democratic Party. When I asked what company he worked at, he said "California" and then said something I couldn't understand. Upon asking him again, the caller said he was calling from "CSS." When I asked to speak to his supervisor, he disconnected the call. I was able to capture the phone number he was calling from on my caller ID. I'll be happy to provide the number to you and/or your investigators. To make sure no one connected with the Florida Democratic Party or the McBride campaign was responsible for this call, I double-checked with our coordinated campaign and the McBride campaign. Neither were currently making live phone calls to voters. Had I followed the instructions provided by the caller, my absentee ballot would be void and my vote would not count. To ensure that Florida's general election is free from fraud, and to figure out who is conducting this apparent coordinated phone campaign to misinform voters, I request that you immediately launch an investigation into this matter. The whole world is watching Florida to make sure we get this election right. Your action in this matter can help us as we work to restore faith in Florida's elections."
From the Miami Herald. Looks like the vaunted position of Secretary of State once again gives cause to have its impartiality questioned. ___________________ Strategy targets poll watchers Democrats sue to block group BY ANDREA ROBINSON arobinson@herald.com Citing fears of voter intimidation and a repeat by GOP operatives to ''barrage polling places,'' local Democrats -- including former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek -- are suing to block Miami-Dade County from allowing a Republican political action committee to put poll watchers inside the county's precincts Tuesday. On Thursday, the Democratic Executive Committee filed for an emergency injunction to prevent the group, called the Emergency Committee to Stop Bill McBride, from accessing the precincts. The complaint names the PAC, Miami-Dade County and the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee as defendants. It alleges that the county, using a little-known procedural change by Republican Secretary of State Jim Smith, accepted applications to allow hundreds of PAC members just before the cutoff date. WHAT LAW ALLOWS Florida law allows each political party and candidate to place one person in each polling room at any one time during the election. But it does not specifically mention political action committees. ''The omission by the secretary of state of highly material information afforded the Republican Party an opportunity that has been denied to all other groups,'' the complaint states. ''This was a secret change, and it's outrageous that the Department of State would not have advised both sides immediately or posted it on the website,'' said state Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat. ``I have great concern that is a prelude to Election Day mischief and misconduct.'' Mark Goodrich, a GOP consultant and committee leader, criticized the legal challenge as ''an attempt to intimidate'' and an effort by Democrats to ``instigate something on the last weekend before the election.'' Smith's office could not be reached late Thursday. KEEPING TRACK Poll watchers have long been a part of state and national elections and typically are used by candidates who want to keep track of whether their supporters have shown up. Elections officials say Tuesday's election has drawn a record number of poll watchers. The Stop McBride PAC was approved by the Elections Department to put one person in 450 of 553 polling places. But Democrats and officials with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida say those people also can challenge a voter's eligibility. They allege that could dissuade some voters from casting a ballot. The PAC poll watchers ''would create a perilous burden on the voting process and foreseeably result in voter intimidation,'' the complaint states. Murray Greenberg, assistant county attorney, reached late Thursday said he had not seen the complaint and could not comment on its specifics. Circuit Judge Eleanor Schockett was to hear the case at 10:30 a.m. today. TWO YEARS AGO The Democrats also allege the maneuverings are ''hauntingly similar'' to the treatment of Republicans two years ago in the securing of absentee ballots. Elections officials in Seminole and Martin counties provided assistance to Republican absentee voters but did not to Democrats, the complaint states. It also alleges that GOP operatives are attempting to bring in scores, perhaps hundreds of personnel from across the country to barrage polling places, as it says happened during the county's aborted recount during the November 2000 presidential election. A flier released by the PAC this week says it was created ``due to the polling problems in Dade County during the last two elections, Bill McBride's surge in the polls, and to ensure that pro-Republican voters are not disenfranchised.'' Goodrich said his group is composed of about 2,000 Miami-Dade Republicans. He said that besides the poll watchers, more would be outside the precincts to protect the rights of voters. ''We want to make sure our voters don't see the long lines and think they're not going to get to vote,'' he said.
Can we sell Florida to Cuba or something? Or could we just cut that whole peninsula off (ouch!) and let it float away as it's own F-ed up country? Disney world is not worth all this crap.
Uh, no. If you don't think things like this happen in almost every other state, you're sadly mistaken. It's only the publicity from the 2000 election that keeps bringing things like this up again and again in Florida.
Thanks, mf, but I was kidding around. I'm from Louisiana so the theme of your authoritative mini-lecture is evident to me. I have to ask: have you ever attended a circus, dashed into the center ring, and attempted to stop a clown from getting into a cannon? (by the way, I am the clown in this analogy, and the question is rhetorical).
I think if you are not smart enough to figure out how and when to vote properly, then you are not qualified to chose who will run the country. Think of getting in a ballot as a little minimum IQ test.
Yeah, I agree. If you are so dumb that you let yourself get harassed, intimidated, and disenfranchised, then you shouldn't be allowed to vote even though you are a legal citizen and of age and meet all the legal requirements. . .
