In the Sunshine State voting has always been contentious. The nationally highlighted hanging chads incident in 2000 speaks for itself. This year, however, the problem was made worse by the long ballots and even longer voting lines.
The length of the Florida ballots this year was unprecedented. Multiple sheets with races on both sides were given to voters who then had to feed them into the ballot scanners one at a time. The ballot contained choices for President, U.S. Senate, Congress, the state legislature, county offices, retaining judges, city and county referendums and eleven proposed constitutional changes. In addition multiple counties included translations in two or three different languages on the same ballot.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, many voters were not even able to complete the ballot due to its density and lengthiness. These long ballots led to longer times in the privacy booth which in turn led to longer lines to vote. Early voting lines were as long as seven hours in Miami – Dade County likely due to, in part, to the passage of a referendum in 2011 which cut early voting days from fourteen to eight. Despite this change, many Elections Departments attempted to alleviate this issue by allowing for in-person absentee voting.
As a former Assistant Clerk in Miami-Dade County I saw firsthand the lack of functionality of the voting optical scanner which reads the ballots. First, there were not enough voting optical scanners in the precinct to accommodate the long ballots and high voter traffic. Second, the voter deposit boxes needed to be replaced more frequently, as they filled quickly with the enormous ballots. These boxes can only be emptied by the elections specialist, an official employee of the county, which means that if the box is full and the employee has not emptied it there will be a delay in voting. Third, the ballot readers are prone to jams, which was heightened by the length and rush to submit ballots.
Voting issues in Florida should be remedied with long-term solutions. Solutions for a long term voting strategy should be formulated through an independent, bi-partisan organization which could then inform the legislature and state-wide Division of Elections on strategies to prevent voter fraud and allow for a more stream-lined voting procedure. This group should be made of representatives of state political parties, former Supervisors of Elections, and representatives from independent voting organizations. The recommendations provided by this organization should be based on an analysis of past election issues, specifically in 2000, 2008, and 2012. The report should then be submitted by hearing to the legislature for approval and implementation.
Recommendations could include: reinstating fourteen early voting days; extending early and regular voting hours around the work day; setting a page limit to the ballot; limiting the number of constitutional amendments in one election; opening more precincts or creating sub-precincts; and providing more privacy booths and ballot readers in precincts.
The voting problems in Florida need to be remedied. Florida has been a contentious, swing state in past presidential elections and has been a major deciding factor in choosing the next President of the United States. These issues in Florida’s voting system are an embarrassment and need to be remedied prior to the next presidential election in four years.
