Floridians begin casting early ballots

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- With memories of 2000 and the state's bitter fight over ballots still fresh, Floridians began casting votes Monday and within an hour problems cropped up.\nIn Palm Beach County, the center of the madness during the recount four years ago, a Democratic state legislator said she wasn't given a complete absentee ballot when she asked to opt for paper instead of the electronic touch-screen machines. Several voting sites in Broward County had problems with laptops connected to elections headquarters. And a brief computer system crash in Orange County paralyzed voting in Orlando and its immediate suburbs.\nA steady flow turned out Monday morning at more than a dozen sites in Palm Beach County. Patrick Flanagan, who went to the county's election headquarters to cast his ballot, said he voted early because he wanted to avoid the long lines expected on Election Day. He said he's voted on the touch-screen machines once before, and both times have gone "very smoothly."\n"I'm a computer-phobe, and it seemed easy enough to me," said Flanagan, who added that he had no concerns about his vote being counted.\nSteve Perez, 44, said he went early to cast a "protest vote" for Ralph Nader.\n"What's important is that you vote. I didn't want to get in all the hoopla with all the turnout in Election Day," said Perez, a substitute teacher.\nWhile backers touted early voting for people like Flanagan as a way to avoid long lines on Nov. 2, some have criticized the concept, saying it increases opportunities for fraud without significantly boosting participation.\nSome groups urged Florida voters to ask for paper absentee ballots because of concerns over the state's new touch-screen voting machines and any potential recounts. Voters Monday morning could choose either method.\nState Rep. Shelley Vana said the paper absentee ballot she was given at a Palm Beach County site was missing one of its two pages, including the proposed amendments to the state constitution. She said election workers were indifferent when she pointed out the oversight.\n"There was absolutely no concern on the part of the folks at the Supervisor of Elections Office that this page was missing. This is not a good start. If there are incomplete ballots out there, I can't imagine I would be the only one getting it," she said.\nCounty elections supervisor Theresa LePore did not immediately return a call seeking comment.\nEarly voting also gets under way Monday in Texas, Colorado and Arkansas. Other key states this year have already begun in-person voting, including Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and New Mexico. Balloting by mail is under way in Oregon, the only state in the nation that has done away with polling booths altogether.\nEarly voting and touch-screen equipment were introduced in Florida after the 2000 election, in which this crucial state decided the result by only 537 votes and introduced topics such as butterfly ballots and hanging chads to the national debate. The early voting continues at a limited number of sites in each county until Election Day, when regular polling places will be open.\nProtesters gathered outside the Duval County election supervisor's office Monday because the county, the state's most populous, had only one voting site. A city attorney said it said it was too late to open new sites, even though the city council had committed more money to the idea.\nBroward County had 14 voting sites but several of them had trouble linking polling station laptop computers with the supervisor's office, said Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood. The computers are used to confirm voter eligibility. Workers used paper lists and called the supervisor's office in Fort Lauderdale to verify eligibility, Nash said.\nBroward elections officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.\nIn Miami-Dade County, about 150 people gathered Monday morning for a rally led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. Some people carried homemade signs that said "Early Voting Counts" and "Every Vote Matters."\nBoth President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry arranged campaign swings through the Sunshine State over the weekend in efforts to capitalize on the early voting.\nEven as voters turned out, lawyers were going to court in Fort Lauderdale to argue a lawsuit over the lack of paper backup on the state's electronic machines.