Posted on 09/11/2002 3:02:45 PM PDT by finnman69
Democrats to Blame Florida on GOP Wed Sep 11, 5:19 PM ET By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats signaled an eagerness Wednesday to turn Florida's latest Election Day troubles into a campaign issue against Gov. Jeb Bush this fall.
AP Photo
9/11 Special Coverage News, features, photos and more.
Go there now.
At the same time, party officials hoped for a speedy end to the overtime primary battle between Democratic rivals Janet Reno ( news - web sites) and Bill McBride, and a quick display of unity behind the winner who will oppose Bush in November.
"This could not have turned out worse for Jeb Bush," Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe said of the difficulties in Tuesday's voting. "It reminds everybody about how Al Gore ( news - web sites) was robbed in the last presidential election."
"This is the governor's responsibility," he added.
Jim Dyke, a spokesman for the GOP national party, scoffed at the Democratic claims. He said Bush had pushed for new election laws, and that local officials — many of them Democrats — were responsible for overseeing elections in their own counties.
"You've got a Democratic primary, Democratic election officials and a bunch of people who think Gore won" over the governor's brother in 2000, he said. "It's delusional."
McAuliffe said he planned to travel to Florida over the weekend for a "unity event" with McBride and Reno and hoped an undisputed winner would emerge by then.
The day after the polls closed in the Democrats' gubernatorial primary, McBride led Reno narrowly with thousands of ballots yet to be counted in a half-dozen counties.
McAuliffe also pledged the party would conduct a major voter education program in Florida and elsewhere, and back it up by dispatching lawyers to numerous locations in November.
Tuesday's balloting included both mechanical difficulties and human error, an embarrassment to a state that had spent $32 million to overhaul its voting procedures after the disputed 2000 presidential election.
Gov. Bush himself called the developments "shameful."
On Tuesday, he had ordered polls statewide to stay open late. Some poll workers refused, however, and shut down at 7 p.m. as planned, barring entry to would-be voters.
Several Democratic aides said the party intends to use the Election Day difficulties to motivate key constituencies by resurrecting memories of the 2000 election in the state that gave Republicans the White House.
Most of those problems centered on claims that blacks and other core Democratic voters were disenfranchised by confusing ballots and mechanical errors.
Democrats need those voters to turn out in large numbers this fall to maximize their chances of denying Bush a second term as Florida's governor.
At the same time they sought advantage from the state's election woes, Democrats said they hoped an automatic recount law would not come into use in their gubernatorial primary. A recount is automatic if the two top vote getters are separated by less than one-half of one percent of the total number of votes cast.
In the race between McBride and Reno, that translates to between 6,000 and 7,000 votes.
Additionally, the loser has the right to request a recount at their own expense, and Reno said through an aide she would consider it, pending the results of the original count.
Many party aides have argued privately that McBride would provide the stronger challenge to Bush this fall.
Apart from the Democratic Party, Mary Frances Berry, chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a persistent critic of Gov. Bush, said she plans to ask the Justice Department ( news - web sites) to "seriously review" the state's election performance.
Like I said before...the stronger challenge? Maybe McBride is the snowball versus Reno's snowflake...but both have the same snowball's chance in....
Betcha' if they did drug tests for precinct workers they wouldn't be able to get enough people to run the election.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.