Posted on Fri, Nov. 01, 2002
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.
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