Miami Herald: Botched forms exclude many voters (FL)

[Scooter24]

Botched forms exclude many voters

Broward and Miami-Dade counties have adopted different standards for accepting or rejecting voter registrations that were not completely filled out. Secretary of State Glenda Hood indicated Monday she couldn't force uniformity.

BY ERIKA BOLSTAD AND GARY FINEOUT

Broward County residents who skipped over a box on their voter registration form will be barred from voting in the presidential election, while Miami-Dade residents who made the same omission will be allowed to cast ballots.
Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who oversees elections statewide, said Monday that Broward was following her instructions in disqualifying those who failed to complete the form.

But she indicated that there was no way to force Dade to follow the same procedure. And Dade said it was sticking to its plan of not disqualifying voters for skipping the citizenship box if they affirmed elsewhere with their signatures that they are U.S. citizens.

The disparate procedures came to light in the days before Monday's deadline for registering to vote in Florida in November.

In 2000, Florida decided the presidential election by a mere 537 votes. With Florida again poised to play a key role in choosing the president, groups have crisscrossed the state in recent weeks, registering thousands of new voters. Some groups may have been less than attentive in ensuring that every box is checked and every blank filled out.

''The law clearly states that form has to be filled out in its entirety,'' said Hood, in Broward Monday to look in on a pollworker training class. ``You cannot go in and pick and choose which boxes you choose or do not choose to fill out.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/9836927.htm

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So the Republican Secretary of State comes out publicly, just a few days before the deadline, to tell people that there is a problem with their forms and now can't vote? Damnit...She knew perfectly well that there was a problem with those ballots but kept quiet.

[izzie]

1. Did I miss what it was they did not fill in?

What was so great in one place and not in the other?

[Demit]

4. "...skipping the citizenship box if they affirmed elsewhere with

their signatures that they are U.S. citizens."

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Three things are usually missed.

Affirmations that you're a U.S. citizen, competent and not a felon.

[BootinUp]

2. "You cannot pick and choose which counties you want to recount"

Oh sorry, flashback.

[aquart]

3. They seem to be getting ready for their court challenge.

Wasn't unequal application one of the reasons the courts got upset with Florida?

[ClintonTyree]

5. Once again...........

Florida assumes it's position as the Untied States' own little Banana Republic. There will NEVER be fair elections in that State until the citizens of same vote out the corrupt leadership that is subverting Democracy there.

[FLSurfer]

6. I am already expecting

to arrive at the polls Nov 2nd, and be turned away. I moved a mile up the road in Jan. and had to replace my voter registration.
What should I do? If told I can't vote.

[libertad]

7. If it happens to you, demand a PROVISIONAL BALLOT. It's your right.

If you are still registered at your "old" address, you could check there first and just vote there. If you're not listed, use a provisional ballot at your "new" location.

[wildeyed]

9. Check your registration NOW.

Most states you can do it online. Otherwise, call your board of elections. If there is a problem, re-register.

If I lived in FL, I would register as a repub or at least unaffiliated to lessen the chance of being disenfranchised. If I was black, I wouldn't check the 'race' box on the form. By law you don't have to give that information.

[AndyTiedye]

21. Too Late - If they dropped him, he has to fight it in court

That is why they are doing all these shenanegans right at the deadline,
so the only recourse is an expensive court battle.

We anticipated this, which is why the Kerry campaign has been getting
as many lawyers as they can to help.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. You can vote in Florida starting on October 18th. They are

accepting early voting. Go to your Supervisor of Election's office and vote!

[AndyTiedye]

20. Check Your Registration as soon as possible

If they say you aren't registered, you have time to fight it
and there are lawyers volunteering to help fight these battles.

Don't let them supress your vote!

[Bandit]

26. Everyone can vote... Don't let anyone tell you different

You can cast what is called a questionable ballot. They have to accept it and later do a determination to see if in fact it is a valid ballot. They can not just arbitraily turn you away.

[flordehinojos]

8. My letter to Erika Bolstad

How on heaven's earth, is it possible to enforce a uniform law in one county and not in another?

Brenda Snipes is a Bush pimp that is how. During the 5:00 o’clock afternoon WPLG NEWS broadcast yesterday, Brenda Snipes said that, this is an important election because we are getting ready to “elect the president of the world”! ....Gasp, Gasp, Gasp!!!!!!!!! What a Freudian slip on the part of the woman who is supposed to be an impartial supervisor of elections but who is, instead a JEB BUSH APPOINTEE! First of all, does she not know that 1) The United States has boundaries? That there are other and many differing countries outside the United States and that GWB nor the Bush Family owns them? Does she not know that the installation of GWB as pResident of the White House does not make the Petite L’Enfant president of the world? Does she need to go back to school and take up History 101, Civics 101 and Geography 101? In addition, does her ignorance, or Freudian slip, or both, point, like a compass, to a flaw in Brenda Snipes that tells that she holds GWB to be akin to a god? If she does, and because of her tied strings to the Bushes, she should not be running our Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office. Now we know where our Broward County Votes are headed... out the door, just like they were during the 2000 elections. No wonder the pathetic Peddler of Lies, Master of Deceit and Lord of Manipulations, can stand before one of his bubbled audiences and say, “I don’t plan on losing the elections”. He knows they got it rigged for him and people in the media are enabling it. And, on the hope for the return of a democratic form of government, thank God that they are not enforcing the law of disenfranchising registered voters down in Miami-Dade County...although, perhaps they have rigged the elections there in some other ways...how can anyone trust the Bush Family Evil Empire whose Matriarch Dorothy Walker taught them to “win at all cost but never appear to want to win”.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Computer Activist for the Return of Constitutional Government through
Honest and Open Elections!

[0007]

10. .....now I see why Jimmy Carter has second thoughts about

Florida's election.

[wildeyed]

11. I hate the citizenship box.

They send them back here in NC, too, if you don't check the dumb box. It asks 'are you 18?' and 'are you a citizen of the US'? But later on the form you fill in your DOB and when you sign, they ask again are you a citizen. I have gotten very careful with training my volunteer to be sure that box is checked and to be sure the form is filled out in it's entirety.

What is annoying is that voter registration is completely unnecessary in this day and age. We have the technology to do same day registration at the polls. These arbitrary voter registration dates are just another way to decrease turnout.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. If the voter INSISTS that he filled out the form completely he can

ask for a provisional ballot. BUT HE MUST ASK FOR IT AND HE MUST BE INSISTANT. It will not be offered to him voluntarily.

[GoldenOldie]

15. How many will take to the streets if there is a repeat of

Florida???? Only this time it will not only involve Florida but many other States.

[gatlingforme]

16. Honestly, this Florida election debacle is to the point of beyond reason

I can't understand how these people in the disenfranchised counties can sit their and take this bullshit. It's beyond me.

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. I think it's because we're accustom to a government which was

a benefactor to society. It isn't anymore.

[gatlingforme]

19. Good point. n/t

[Polemonium]

18. Sickening

We can not let them get a way with this kind of thing again. Time to raise hell is now, not in a month.

[FLSurfer]

22. Thanks for the advice

My vote will be cast Oct. 18th

[derby378]

23. Have Floridians learned nothing?

When ginbarn and I registered voters this year, we checked each other's forms to make sure that every necessary box was checked, every line filled in correctly. If someone screwed up the form, we destroyed it and made them fill it out again. We wanted to be very careful that nobody we registered was rejected for any clerical mishaps on their part or ours.

Any indication that the problem was primarily with mail-in registration forms?

[Rose Siding]

24. Call Broward! Call Hood! Is it too soon for our own hired mob protest?

:grr:

[brooklynite]

25. Is there ANY aspect of the Florida election...

that's not immersed in controversy? I know the Republic state officials have outdone themselves in trying to screw things up, but it seems that the county-level people (who I would imagine would be somewhat more ideologically distributed) seem to be doing the same things.

[Supersedeas]

27. following Glenda Hood's instructions to disqualify these voters

Rove smiles.