Where are the ballots?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jerry Levine <jerry () jerrylevine com>
Date: October 27, 2004 10:23:32 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Where are the ballots?

I think they were eaten by dogs, just like my homework was the other 
day. I
mean, how else do you lose 60,000 ballots?

Also, note that the lady at the end says that the line was just too 
long and
it was too hot to vote. That's great news for low turnout in a heavily
Democratic area.

------------------

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/10023659.htm
60,000 mailed ballots missing, Broward elections office says

JEAN-PAUL RENAUD

Knight Ridder Tribune News Service

FORT LAUDERDALE - The Broward County Supervisor of Elections office on
Tuesday said it couldn't account for nearly 60,000 missing absentee 
ballots
sent to voters and that its phone lines were being overwhelmed by calls.

Hoping to avoid another embarrassing election, Broward County 
commissioners
Tuesday offered to send county employees to help. Dozens of county 
employees
could begin assisting the elections office as early as today to answer
telephone calls and to process voters at the 14 early voting sites.

"What we are seeing is unprecedented so if the supervisor of elections 
needs
our help, we will help," county mayor Ilene Lieberman said.

Just six days away from the general election, the Supervisor of 
Elections
office has fielded hundreds of complaints from people who have yet to
receive their absentee ballot. Countless more have been unable to get
through to election officials to complain or get their questions 
answered.

"I tried for the last week or so to call the elections office, and it's 
just
busy continually," said 70 year-old Paula Zubatkin, whose four-week old
request for an absentee ballot has gone unanswered. "I want to vote."

Election officials also said they launched an investigation and found 
that
many of the missing ballots - 58,000 of them - were sent Oct. 7 and 
Oct. 8.
The problem, they say, lies with the post office.

Post office officials say they are not at fault.

"We have employees that we assign to handle the absentee ballots that 
come
in," said Enola C. Rice, spokeswoman for the Postal Service's South 
Florida
District. "So all the absentee ballots that are received by the postal
service are processed and delivered immediately."

She said most local mail is delivered in one day.

Some, like 68-year-old Myrna Davis, depended on her absentee ballot to 
vote.
After they fruitlessly waited weeks for an absentee ballot, they 
decided to
show up at an early voting site. But after a three-hour wait in line, 
they
gave up.

"The heat was too great," Davis said. "Although there was air 
conditioning,
there were so many people there, I couldn't tolerate it. I feel this is 
a
third world country."

.. Jerry Levine .................       jerry.levine () rutgers edu 
[RUMail]
.. jerry () jerrylevine com ........       www.jerrylevine.com [work]
.. glevine () clam rutgers edu .....       www.gaijeans.com [portfolio]
.. patchmonkey () patchmonkey net ..       www.patchmonkey.net [personal]
........The best way to predict the future is to invent it............


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