He stepped into a pack of about 100 reporters, his crisp white shirt blinding in the searing sun. “Just look up into the sky,” he said, where, as luck would have it, a skywriting plane was puffing out J-E-B. Then Bush seized his last chance to brand his Democratic challenger, Bill McBride, a reckless tax-and-spend liberal. “This is not a time to be raising taxes,” Bush declared. In response to reports of hours-long waits at some polling sites, he urged Floridians to be patient. “Long lines should not be considered a bad election,” he said, choosing instead to interpret them as a sign of strong voter turnout. “I’m encouraged by that.” From there, Bush said, he was going to attend mass, call in to a few radio stations and share lunch with friends before settling in at the Renaissance Hotel in Miami to await the election results.
Up in the Tampa area, meanwhile, McBride cast his vote–at almost precisely the same time as Bush–at the United Methodist Church in McBride’s rural hometown of Thonotosassa. Afterward, he invited several dozen reporters to have brunch at his home. Calls from well-wishers poured in, and he fielded them in typically genial fashion. “He’s tired and worn down,” reported spokesman Alan Stonecipher, “but optimistic and upbeat.”
So it goes on the final day of a gubernatorial race that has drawn the eyes of the nation–and the world. For Bush, victory would distinguish him as the first Republican governor ever to win re-election in the state. It would also help him remain in the good graces of the Bush dynasty, which considers Florida key to brother W’s prospects in 2004. For McBride, a triumph would cap a stunning rise from obscurity and would instantly crown him a hero to Democrats nationwide. Not only would the party strengthen its position for the next presidential election; it would savor sweet revenge for Gore’s loss in the state in 2000. And for Floridians, the quick definition of any winner would be a victory. They’re tired of providing fodder for late-night comedians and eager to prove that they can in fact exercise their franchise.
A bevy of national–and even international–groups have gathered in Florida to ensure just that. Among them: the Justice Department’s civil-rights division, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Center for Democracy, the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People–even the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, a Warsaw-based group that usually monitors elections in places like Latvia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. “This is the first time” ODIHR has observed an election in the United States., says spokesman Jens Eschenbaecher. “It’s mainly to look into how the challenges that emerged in the last elections [in 2000] have been dealt with.”
By late this afternoon, things seemed to be running fairly well. Janet Reno, who on primary day in September was forced to wait outside her polling place until election workers succeeded in activating voting machines, cast her vote this time around without a hitch. “I did not encounter any difficulties,” said Reno, reached at home. “I think everybody joins in the hope” that Florida pulls off this election without major mishaps.
Some precincts that encountered problems during the primary appeared to be faring better today. Take Carol City Senior High School in Miami-Dade County, a mostly black precinct. Back in September, none of the 14 voting machines were working when polls opened at 7 a.m., and only four were activated later in the day. This time, “it’s perfect,” said poll worker Jimmy Williams. “You can vote in three minutes in there.” Turnout seemed low-perhaps because some 108,000 people in South Florida opted to vote before Election Day–leaving poll workers to laze under the trees as the sprinklers cooled the grass.
Not that there haven’t been complaints. The NAACP has received reports of mistaken precinct addresses on voting cards and people whose names weren’t on record even though they had registered, according to Brad Brown, president of the organization’s Miami-Dade branch. “But there have been no major systemic problems,” said Brown early this afternoon. “Overall, things are going reasonably smoothly.”
At the ACLU, where a war room has been set up to map Election Day problems, staffers have received comparatively more complaints, particularly in Broward County. Callers have reported precincts that opened one hour late and others with inoperable machines, yielding intolerable lines. One factor that adds to the long lines: the length of this year’s ballots, which in Broward County numbers 11 pages, packed with abstruse amendments. In response, the ACLU faxed a letter this afternoon to the Broward county supervisor of elections, asking that she bring in backup voting machines, offer paper ballots to those languishing in line, and consider extending polling hours beyond the local closing time of 7 p.m. Still, says Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU’s Miami office, government agencies and community groups banded together to prevent a rehash of the primary fiasco, and “so far, it looks like that effort is paying off.” In the interests of governing with a clear mandate, Bush and McBride can only hope he’s right.
