As details of election problems popped up Tuesday, the Floridian tradition of complicating national elections was renewed. Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning said none of the voting problems reported to his office were anything more than "common, everyday election fare."
Well, maybe for this state.
In an Orange County precinct, at least one voter reportedly was told the ballots weren't unpacked yet when polls opened. At two retirement communities in Pembroke Pines and Deerfield Beach, machines used to verify voters' identification malfunctioned when scanning a driver's license.
It only gets worse.
At Kings Point, west of Delray Beach, voters faced long lines after a poll worker accidentally shut down the voting machines. And in Lake County, a voter was told the Democratic primary votes didn't count.
So, this is what a "common, everyday" election has become in Florida, and it didn't get that way overnight. The problems with Florida's voting system were thrust into the spotlight in 2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court finally stepped in to stop the 36-day recount of votes for the presidential election. In 2004, thousands of eligible voters may have been removed from the polls because of a defective database meant to target felons. And just two years ago, in Sarasota County, voting machines failed to record 18,000 votes in a congressional district race.
Clearly, the state has not done enough to address election day debacles. While we're all advocates for using technology to make things easier, in this case we think it's only making things more complicated.
The fact that many of these voting dilemmas stem from technical issues should be a red flag. With counties conducting elections in completely different ways, perhaps it would be a better idea to streamline the process and designate state employees to get the job done.
As we get closer to electing a new president, this is one Florida tradition we don't want to preserve.
