FLA is Starting to Get some National Coverage

Passion and Election Disputes On Rise in Florida as Vote Nears

Florida is a powder keg and I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't rioting on election day in some neighborhoods.

A couple things that struck me:

*125,000 absentee votes in one county?

*The 60,000 missing absentee ballots in Broward County went missing over two days? And Florida law enforcement doesn't suspect fool play? WTF do they think happend to them?

Adam Nagourny is a tool but here are portions of his piece in today's NYT's.

KENDALL, Fla., Oct. 27 - It is as if the presidential election of 2000 never ended here.

Six days before Election Day, Florida is again struggling with questions about potential voting irregularities, from complaints of up to 60,000 missing absentee ballots in Broward County and accusations of voter suppression in minority neighborhoods to concerns about new touch-screen voting machines. Floridians have been standing for as long as three hours to cast early votes in the presidential race, testimony to the unresolved passions of the election of 2000. Interest is so intense that analysts predict that a staggering 75 percent of Florida voters will cast ballots by the time polls close Tuesday evening.

The disappearance of absentee ballots only fed suspicion among Democrats already distrustful of a state government controlled by President Bush's brother Gov. Jeb Bush, with pollsters saying Floridians are already concerned that their votes will not be counted....

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Wednesday that up to 60,000 absentee ballots had been sent to, but not yet received by, voters in Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale. County elections officials did not return phone calls from The New York Times, but Gisela Salas, the deputy elections supervisor, told The Sun-Sentinel that many of the missing ballots were sent on Oct. 7 and 8. Ms. Salas said she had no explanation for their disappearance.

The United States Postal Service issued a statement on Wednesday saying it was handling absentee ballots "as expeditiously as possible," and had "identified no delays in our handling of balloting materials or actual ballots."

Counties throughout Florida are handling record requests for absentee ballots this year, partly because both political parties have encouraged that method of voting, in
addition to the emphasis on early voting. Broward officials told The Sun-Sentinel that 126,220 people had requested absentee ballots as of Tuesday.

A spokesman for Theresa LePore, the Palm Beach County elections supervisor, said her office had mailed more than 125,000 absentee ballots and was sending out several thousand more each day. Many Palm Beach County residents have also complained about not receiving absentee ballots that they requested weeks ago.

Though Broward and Palm Beach Counties are heavily Democratic, Ms. Fletcher said many Republicans were among those who had not received ballots from the county elections offices.

Most polls, including nightly ones by the campaigns here, show Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry in a near tie. But pollsters are nervous about their findings because of all the new forces tearing up the Florida electoral landscape in this post-2000 world, starting with a surge of 1.6 million new voters added to the rolls, and predictions that voter turnout could break records.