Palm Beach voter Kenneth Horowitz, owner of the Miami Fusion soccer team and a registered independent, filed a lawsuit along with two others Thursday, saying poll workers told voters they only had five minutes to cast their ballots, and anyone who took longer would have their ballot tossed out.
miamiherald.com
FULL STORY:
Jesse Jackson speaks to protesting voters in Palm Beach County
By KARIN MEADOWS
Associated Press Writer
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- (AP) -- Angry supporters of Democratic Vice President Al Gore protested outside of an elections office in Palm Beach County, where more than 19,000 ballots have been disqualified and two lawsuits have been filed seeking a new vote.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson arrived at a rally outside the Palm Beach County government center, where people held signs saying, ``Redo the vote'' and ``Gore got more.''
Officials in the heavily Democratic county said 19,120 ballots in the presidential race were thrown out before they were counted because more than one candidate was picked; only 3,783 voters made that mistake on the U.S. Senate portion of the ballot.
In addition to the nullified ballots, many voters were concerned that they may have voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Gore because of confusion that arose from the way the county's punch-card style ballot was laid out. Candidates are listed in two columns, with holes down the middle between the columns, to the right or the left of each candidate's name.
The top hole was for Republican George W. Bush, who was listed at top left; the second hole was for Buchanan, listed at top right, and the third hole was for Gore, listed under Bush on the left. Arrows linked the names with the proper hole, but some voters feared they had missed the arrows and punched the wrong hole.
Claretha Roache, 73, was wearing a sticker upside down that said ``Vote! I did'' and waving two small American flags Thursday.
``I didn't vote wrong,'' she said. ``But I knew they were going to have trouble.''
Nearby, Don Liftman was carrying a sign with a picture of George Bush rendered as MAD magazine character Alfred E. Neuman.
He said that the Palm Beach County election was fatally flawed and should be thrown out.
``Our vote was stolen,'' Liftman said. ``Three thousand Buchanan supporters in a county full of Jewish, condo residents? I don't think so.''
Gore campaign manager William Daley, appearing Thursday on CBS's ``The Early Show,'' called the problem ``a very serious situation,'' and held out the possibility that the results would be challenged in court.
``The citizens of Florida are the ones who will determine whether or not they want to go to court,'' he said. ``I assume the courts will take a serious look at what may be an injustice unparalleled in our history.''
Two lawsuits saying that the law was violated are seeking a revote. The first one was filed Wednesday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court by three residents.
``I went to the polls for one specific reason, to vote for Gore. I hit the second hole. I am sure I did. What was going on in my mind was somehow my right to vote had been taken away from me,'' said Lillian Gaines, 67, one of the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit against the canvassing board and election officials said the ballots were ``deceptive, misleading and confusing.''
Palm Beach voter Kenneth Horowitz, owner of the Miami Fusion soccer team and a registered independent, filed a lawsuit along with two others Thursday, saying poll workers told voters they only had five minutes to cast their ballots, and anyone who took longer would have their ballot tossed out.
Rabbi Richard Yellin, wearing a gray suit and matching yarmulke, a traditional Jewish skullcap, said his voting precinct is in his Delray Bech synagogue Temple Emegh.
When it dawned on several of his parishioners that they had voted incorrectly, ``people started crying.''
``I have 130 Holocaust survivors in my congregation ... people with numbers on their arms and they're not going to vote for a candidate who is not fully aware of the issues and pain of Holocaust survivors.''
Clay Roberts, director of the Florida Division of Elections, said the ballot design problem was exaggerated.
``I don't think they are confused. I think they left the polling place and became confused,'' said Roberts, who was appointed by Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris, like Gov. Jeb Bush an independently elected member of the Florida Cabinet.
``The ballot is very straightforward. You follow the arrow, you punch the location. Then you have voted for who you intend to elect.''
But Daley said the ballot was problematic. ``There seems to be no question that this lineup on that ballot in that county ... does violate Florida law,'' he said.
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, dispatched by Bush to oversee the GOP monitoring team in Florida, angrily told NBC's ``Today'' show that Palm Beach County voters' rights were upheld, even if their ballots were thrown out.
``They did have a chance to have their voices heard,'' he said. ``And let me tell you something else about that ballot: That ballot was posted, as required by Florida law, in newspapers and public places all over the state of Florida. Not one complaint was received about that ballot, which, by the way, was approved by a Democrat who was elected. A Democratic election supervisor approved that ballot. And we haven't heard one gripe about that ballot until after the voting took place.''
Boca Raton resident Blake Smith incorrectly punched his ballot and had to ask for a second card.
``When I went to push the one for president, I pushed one and it seemed ... like I had to push one for vice president, too. Then I saw I had accidentally voted twice,'' Smith said.
County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore, a Democrat, said it is the first time the county has listed presidential candidates on two pages. She said the ballot was drawn up that way because there were so many candidates and because she wanted the names to be large enough for older people to read.
Lawyers for the Democratic Party said the ballot design is illegal and that they may ask for a re-vote in the county. No immediate action was taken by the party.
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