Reno May Contest Florida Election Outcome

September 12, 2002

WASHINGTON — As the controversy over mechanical failures at new voting booths and faulty ballot counts mounted Thursday, Florida gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride had an 8,000-vote lead over Janet Reno in the Democratic primary early in the day. But he was no closer to declaring victory, as more than a dozen counties had reported election mishaps since the Tuesday primary.

Meanwhile, election officials scratched their heads at how a state that has infused $32 million into its voting systems -- the result of a rancorous 2000 Presidential election that put Florida under rigorous scrunity -- could be experience much of the same problems two years later.

With all precincts reporting early Thursday, McBride had 600,425 votes, or 44.5 percent, compared with the former attorney general's 592,434 votes, or 43.9 percent. Miami Sen. Daryl Jones had 156,165 votes, or 11.6 percent.

Although all precincts had reported results, Orange County was still reviewing some ballots that did not scan properly.

Reno, who had been leading attorney McBride in the polls by a clear 25 points before slipping behind most recently, was still mulling over her options -- perhaps a lawsuit to overturn the results or a recount request -- and claiming that thousands of voters were turned away from the polls on Tuesday.

A final margin within 0.5 percent of the total votes cast, or about 6,700 votes, would automatically trigger a recount. According to the unofficial results, the margin was 7,991 votes out of more than 1.3 million cast.

The winner of the race will face Republican Gov. Jeb Bush on Election Day.

Reno's campaign complained about polls opening late or ignoring Bush's order to stay open an extra two hours, election workers struggling with new touchscreen voting machines, and voter confusion about polling places because of new precinct boundaries.

"At this point I don't want to talk about it until I know what the circumstances are,'' Reno said.

The voting machines had been introduced as part of an effort to avoid a repeat of the debacle in 2000, when George W. Bush's 537-vote victory was delayed by more than seven weeks as Al Gore demanded recounts and Democrats complained of uncounted and faulty punchcard ballots, undercounts and inaccessible polls in poor areas of the state.

In Florida, individual county eleciton supervisors are responsible for election systems. This week, Gov. Bush and many voters blamed the problems on election chiefs in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, which bought touchscreen machines to replace punchcard equipment.

"Let's be clear about this: 65 counties got it right. Wasn't perfect, but they got it right,'' Bush said.

Meanwhile, McBride seemed confident he would capture the nomination, telling supporters Tuesday night that it looked like he would win and his campaign on Wednesday predicted a 5,000- to 10,000-vote victory.

McBride, a Tampa lawyer who ran Florida's largest law firm before stepping down to focus on his campaign, had an early lead on Election night, but it became more narrow as votes from Reno strongholds in South Florida began trickling in over the course of the last two days.

"I thought it was going to be close, but I thought it would have been settled by now,'' McBride said Wednesday. "I just hope this gets straightened out.''

"I don't know exactly what the powers I have to do this, but I guarantee you that in November, the election will run much more smoothly than the supervisors of election allowed to occur (Tuesday),'' Bush said Wednesday.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,62860,00.html