MIAMI -- Despite a $32 million renovation, Florida's new election system crashed in an embarrassment that, like the 2000 election, left voters wondering whether their votes counted, candidates pondering recounts and everyone asking who's to blame.\n"You guys have NO idea what a mess this has been," state election monitor Mike Lindsey wrote his Tallahassee bosses in a pre-dawn e-mail from Broward County on Wednesday. "The mess was the result of no planning, poor leadership, lack of 'process ownership' and passing the buck."\nThe debacle, echoing the 2000 presidential stalemate, drew even more scrutiny because, once again, Florida had a high-profile race that was too close to call.\nWith 3 percent of precincts still to report by Wednesday afternoon, former Attorney General Janet Reno trailed Tampa lawyer Bill McBride for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination by 19,000 votes out of more than 1 million cast.\nThe voting problems ranged from technical to human error. Workers had problems starting up new touchscreen voting machines; ballot cards tore and couldn't be read on optical scanning machines; technical problems delayed processing the electronic cartridges used in the new touchscreen voting machines. In Miami-Dade, nearly half of the ballots that were still uncounted on Wednesday were cast by black voters.\nIn addition, some poll workers failed to show up; several polling places opened late; some voters were wrongly turned away for not showing a picture identification.\nIn response to complaints Tuesday, Gov. Jeb Bush extended polling by two hours -- but that led to yet more abuses: in Hollywood, workers at one precinct who had not been told of the extension held the door shut and cursed at voters.\nIn all, 14 of the state's 67 counties reported voting problems, including six of the seven that were sued after the 2000 presidential stalemate.\nOn Wednesday, the blame game was fast and furious.\nBush and voters pointed fingers at election chiefs in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, which bought touchscreen machines to replace punchcard equipment. All counties were required to get rid of punchcard ballots.\n"Let's be clear about this: 65 counties got it right. Wasn't perfect, but they got it right," Bush said. "I guarantee you that in November, the election will run much more smoothly than the supervisors of elections allowed to occur."\nOthers, however, worried that Florida's troubles were a warning of more to come. Several states scrapped punch-card ballots, bought new equipment and changed their laws since the presidential race.\n"It's not just Florida. It's a national problem," said Rob Richie, executive director of the Maryland-based Center for Voting and Democracy. "We will have lots of problems in the next two months."\nReno met with legal advisers and contemplated legal action Wednesday. "I'm thinking to myself this morning," Reno told reporters as she ducked inside headquarters.
\nShe could demand a recount or sue to overturn the results. Secretary of State Jim Smith said the race may be tight enough to automatically trigger a statewide recount -- less than half a percent.\n"She's extremely upset about the disenfranchisement," said Reno spokeswoman Nicole Harburger. "People were not allowed their right to vote. …That's unacceptable to her."\nBy Wednesday afternoon, with 97 percent of precincts reporting, McBride had 597,822 votes, or 45 percent, compared with Reno's 578,240 votes, or 43 percent. State Sen. Daryl Jones had 154,626 votes, or 12 percent.\nTuesday's election contests in 12 states and the District of Columbia brought other voting problems, though none on Florida's scale.\nIn suburban Maryland, where a new computerized voting system was in place, poll workers at each poll site had to tabulate results on paper, then drive the results and computer memory cards to county election headquarters.\nBallot tabulation machines also failed in North Carolina's Robeson County, forcing officials to slowly count by hand.\nBut once again, the nation looked at Florida and shrugged.\n"In 2000 the stakes were higher and we held up the whole nation," said Dario Moreno, head of a political think tank in Miami. "This is series of major mistakes and, as a political scientist, I don't know if you can count this in any sense of the word as a fair election."\nMany of the problems occurred in Miami-Dade and Broward, which bought touchscreen machines from the same company, Elections Systems & Software, and did not run mock elections to test the machines.\nPalm Beach and Hillsborough counties, which bought different touchscreen machines, were relatively trouble free. They ran mock elections in advance.\nThe U.S. Civil Rights Commission, which issued a critical report after examining problems in 2000, warned in June of a "mini-disaster" in the primary due to voting machine changes, precinct changes after redistricting and lingering problems.\nThe Justice Department said it was looking into the latest problems.\nOne elections administration expert said it wasn't one machine or another that caused problems, but the sweeping efforts toward improvement.\n"When you change as many things as you changed in Florida, all at once, you can expect that the first election after that is not going to go smoothly," said Doug Lewis at the Elections Center, a national nonprofit group of election administrators.\nGeorgia, which bought 19,000 touchscreen voting machines for every precinct in the state, is testing each one before it is used. It used the new machines in last month's primaries in only two of its 159 counties, and reported few problems.
