Election reform: late and underpriced?
Tallahassee Democrat

Sunday, August 12, 2001

Election reform: late and underpriced?

By Nancy Cook Lauer DEMOCRAT CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF

There is probably no more telling example of why the state needs a central voter registration database than the discovery last week that Secretary of State Katherine Harris was registered to vote in two counties.

But that project - one of a list of election reforms lawmakers passed earlier this year - is in danger of not being completed in time for the 2002 elections, according to an official with the Florida Association of Court Clerks. The group was negotiating with the State Division of Elections to take over the project, but talks fell through and now the Elections Division plans to go it alone.

"We still would hope there's a possibility the deal can be put back together, but it's going to have to be done real fast," Roger Alderman, executive director of the clerks' association, said last week.

The discovery that Harris had been registered in both Leon and Sarasota counties came as part of a weeklong media inspection of four hard drives used in her offices during the 2000 presidential election. The media, including the Tallahassee Democrat, contracted with Minnesota-based Ontrack Data International to recover deleted files and other information from the hard drives.

Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho says the voter registration database is one of several aspects of election reform that the state simply must move forward on.

"Florida elections are going to be scrutinized to such an extent that we cannot afford to have any errors," Sancho said.

Sides split on ownership, cost

Alderman said the original plan was to begin putting the voter registration database together in July and completing it by June 1, 2002. He thinks the county clerks can do it more quickly than the Division of Elections because they already have a statewide network in place and experience in implementing similar systems, such as the statewide child support database.

But Elections Division Director Clay Roberts said the Department of State has similar experience, including its "Sunbiz" Web site for corporations and a database for state business licenses, and can get a system up and running in time. Roberts bristles at a charge by Sancho that he's sandbagging the process so the division can keep the project in-house.

"There are a lot of things I need to do over the next year, and I didn't particularly need to be taking on another project," Roberts said.

Sancho doesn't share Roberts' confidence. The state maintains the obviously problematic system currently in use. It was also in charge of a contract with a company that wrongly purged qualified voters from the database, thinking they were felons ineligible to vote. The entire registration system, Sancho said, is an "unmitigated disaster."

"I am frustrated," Sancho said. "As a supervisor of elections, I have to have a database that works."

At issue between the clerks and the state, in addition to price, is ownership of the computer code for the program. Alderman said it's customary for the Association of Court Clerks to share ownership with state agencies so it can update the code as needed. Roberts says if taxpayers are paying for it, they should own it.

Price became an issue when lawmakers set aside $2 million to create the database and about $500,000 a year to maintain it. But the clerks estimate it will cost $1.2 million a year because they hadn't anticipated three security and validation audits each year when they put their estimate together.

Media make discoveries

Harris' dual registration was by no means the most embarrassing information Ontrack Data exposed. Also brought to light from the 48 compact disc set containing tens of thousands of documents that reporters sifted through last week:

A computer assigned to Harris' then-Communications Director Donald Tighe was used for a speech Harris was supposed to give March 14, 2000, promoting George W. Bush for president. Harris maintains the document was merely e-mailed to Tighe, but Tighe said in a published interview that he worked on it on the state-owned computer.

Harris herself confided in a Jan. 29, 2000, speech written on her office computer that "I am a bit biased - after all I co-chair the campaign effort of George W. Bush."

Someone in Harris' office ran an Internet query on Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente a week after the election, looking at information about her campaign qualifications and treasurer.

Harris' former campaign manager Marc Reichelderfer acknowledged he was the e-mailer code-named "gopspinner" who received a message on a state computer Nov. 17 titled "Harris Speech." Harris has denied she knew who gopspinner was.

Harris prepared drafts of letters proclaiming Bush the winner before the recount in Palm Beach County was concluded. The recounted votes were eventually rejected.

A Feb. 11, 2000, document by “mgarrard,” most likely Maureen Garrard, one of Harris' aides, touts a Republican “sea change” in Tallahassee and gives thanks for support for Republican candidates.

Democrats, predictably, are outraged and are calling upon Harris to resign. But Harris, who is considering a run for Congress next year from her home District 13, has called the Democrats' statements "silly." Her current post will become an appointive office in January 2003.

State awaits approval

While Harris' partisan politicking makes news at home, justice officials in Washington are poring over the state's election reform plan to see whether it passes muster with the federal Voting Rights Act. The Department of Justice has final approval because it had found five counties - Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe - to have a history of discrimination.

The Florida Equal Voting Rights Project, a consortium of the American Civil Liberties Foundation of Florida, the Florida Institute of Justice and Florida Legal Services, has asked the Justice Department not to approve three components of the new law. The civil rights group is opposed to the posting of a voter responsibilities list at polling places, a new process of purging felons from the voter registration and a law allowing provisional ballots only if the voter is at the correct polling place.

The Justice Department is expected to make a decision before the month is out.

Contact Nancy Cook Lauer at nlauer@taldem.com or (850) 222-6729.

click

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), August 12, 2001

Answers

Katherine Harris is soooooooo hot!. Babe-itude!

-- Pud (pounding@last.stall), August 13, 2001.

How do you unregister? Lets say I move tomorrow and register in my new home town. Am I still registered in my old one? Even if I change my drivers liscense? Do the registrations run out or expire and then are they discarded? If not then I am registered in 4 or 5 places currently. I don't know for sure but I suspect that Katherine Harrises situation is pretty normal.

-- Just passin through (nobody@nowhere.com), August 13, 2001.

Just passin through:

I don't know the answer to your question. I do remember a study that the folks at Washinton University in Saint Louis did in a suburban voting district a few years ago. I don't remember the exact numbers, but something like 60 or 70 % of the voters on the roles were either dead or had moved. That meant a 30 % turnout included most everyone.

Best Wishes,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), August 13, 2001.

My dead relative is still registered ten years later. I tried to have the name removed, but apparently my relative will have to notify the election board...? Seriously. Meanwhile I know another relative is registered in two districts. This person is elderly and doesn't feel like taking formal steps to correct the problem. These relatives lived where my husband and I live now. Four registered voters for this address, and only two of us vote here, so that means only a 50% turnout for this address on paper.

There must not be a central database that keeps track of voter residency.

-- helen (only@half.a.voter.on.paper), August 13, 2001.

Yup.. Cherri the fat cow white trash bush basher.. How filthy.

Hey Cherri guess you like al gores fuckin "I wanna look like abe lincoln" beard huh. He looks like a fucking commy with that thing on.

-- jksfhxjksd (kjasdhsk@ljahsfdjks.com), August 14, 2001.