Postal Experts Hunt for Missing Ballots in Florida

[RedEarth]

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. Postal Service investigators on Wednesday were trying to find thousands of absentee ballots that should have been delivered to voters in one of Florida's most populous counties, officials said.

The issue evoked memories of the polling problems that bedeviled the Florida election in 2000 and which the state has been trying to address before next Tuesday's presidential election, which is again expected to be a very tight race.

Broward deputy supervisor of elections Gisela Salas said 60,000 absentee ballots, accounting for just over 5 percent of the electorate in the county north of Miami, were sent out between Oct. 7 and Oct. 8 to voters who would not be in town on election day.

While some had begun to be delivered, her office had been inundated with calls from anxious voters who still had not received their ballots.

"It's really inexplicable at this point in time and the matter is under investigation by law enforcement," Salas told Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=XUD2ZVUQKX03ICRBAEKSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=6630631

[Richardo]

1. There's only one Florida detective I want on the case...

[Sara Beverley]

14. The rest of country should take a good look at FL to realize just what

kind of a regime we will have if Bush is elected for the first time. His record of failure speaks for itself. What more proof do people need? "I'm a uniter not a divider." Everything Bush has said has been a lie.

[MrMonk]

2. "accounting for 5% of the electorate"

This is not a small matter.

Further, it's not "thousands" of ballots, it's TENS OF THOUSANDS!

[hadrianswall]

4. not correct...

5% of the electorate in BROWARD COUNTY ONLY! come on, do you really think florida only has 1 million voters?

[MrMonk]

9. "in BROWARD COUNTY"

Still not a small matter.

[Rebellious Republican]

12. I live in Florida, you are correct, and pretty arrogant in your reply.

You will not win over the hearts and minds of DUers with your wording, but then that may not be your intention, ya think?

[Hog lover]

3. Probably need to go vote in person early

If they show an absentee ballot has been mailed to you, then you can cast a provisional ballot - that way, one of your votes (and only one) will be counted. Do not let nonreceipt of absentee ballot prevent voting if there is ANY way you can vote early instead.

[Zorbet55]

6. The problem is that the next thing we will hear is

that election boxes are reported missing. This crap is getting deep.

Let's get these con-artists out of office and change things for the better. Cheating is now considered par for the course and the public is beginning to accept it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. According to an article...

The Absentee ballot is important for people like the 70 year old with health problems. They did try to go vote early, but the long lines and heat sent them away.

[Zorbet55]

5. I am getting real tired of stuff like this at Election time

If we don't have the right to vote, then we don't have anything worth preserving and defending. It is high time that we find a better way, even if it means some kind of national identification, sign of the beast, fingerprint ID, or something.

All citizens should be able to vote, once and only once, for the candidate of their choice without hanging chads, double punches, and all the other shenanigans that corrupt officials pull at elections.

We are becoming a banana republic. The banana peels are all over the ground now.

[tsuki]

8. When President Carter

said that the same thing would happen again in Florida, Governor Jeb Bush bristled and said it wasn't so.

I know that it is uncharacteristic for a Bush, but Jeb YOU OWE President Carter an apology.

[democracy eh]

10. should have used FedEx I guess

then there would have been a tracking number

[cvoogt]

11. Robots on Mars, hanging chads on earth

We can send robots to Mars but can't even send ballots to the right address. This incongruency points to either:

A. a broken system / negligence / laziness
B. the system is being manipulated

The rest of the world admires America for its achievements and thinks it's just fine that we're pro-democracy, but let's get it right in our own country before spreading it elsewhere. Otherwise we'll soon have hanging chads everywhere that globalization takes hold, and that's, well, umm, global.

[Nicholas_J]

13. "While Some had begun to be delivered"

AS I said in an earlier post, the procedure in Broward is that all of the offices send stuff down to the mail room, they apply postage, and then they drive it to the main post office. In normal circumstances it takes two weeks for their mail room to proces a simple puece of mail. They mailed stuff out three weeks ago, it spent two in the mail room. This from experience working for Broward. Yesterday when this wa first erported, I said I bet people would start getting the items this week. The two weeks in the mail room would be responsible for that.

[Moderator]

15. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=936309