posted October 27, 2004 12:05 PM            

One would think they had smartened up in 4 years....one would be wrong.

Does anyone really want democrats running the country, running the war on terrorism, running the war in Iraq?

And, who do these democrat blame? Do they take responsibility for their own incompetence? Hell no, it's the post office who is responsible.

Headline..Kerry Campaign
Today, Senator John Kerry blasted Bush for debacle in Florida. Kerry complains Bush failed to remove incompetent Democrats from the Democrat controlled Broward County election apparatus.

CBS and the New York Times lent credibility to the Senators allegations of Bush incompetence. Dan Rather and 60 Minutes plan expose of Bush Sunday evening.

Long lines, busy signals fuel voting frustration in Broward

By Jean-Paul Renaud
Staff Writer
Posted October 27 2004

The Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office pointed a finger at the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday for nearly 60,000 missing absentee ballots, but took the blame for having a phone system that was being overwhelmed by calls from frustrated voters.

While the post office denied responsibility for the missing ballots, Broward County commissioners, anxious to avoid another failed election, offered to send county employees to help with the phones. Dozens of employees could begin assisting the elections office today to answer telephone calls and to process voters at the 14 early voting sites.

"What we are seeing is unprecedented, so if the supervisor of elections needs our help, we will help," County Mayor Ilene Lieberman said. "It's a week to the election, and voting is a basic right in our country."

Just six days away from the general election, the Supervisor of Elections Office has fielded hundreds of complaints from people that have yet to receive their absentee ballot. Countless more have been unable to get through to election officials to complain or get their questions answered.

"I tried for the last week or so to call the elections office and it's just busy continually," said Paula Zubatkin, 70, whose four-week-old request for an absentee ballot has gone unanswered. "I want to vote."

Election officials also said they launched an investigation and found that many of the missing ballots -- 58,000 of them -- were sent on Oct. 7 and Oct 8. The problem, they say, lies with the post office.

"That is something beyond our control," Deputy Supervisor of Elections Gisela Salas said. "We really have no idea what's going on. It's just taken an extraordinary amount of time. I would really encourage people to use early voting."

Post office officials say they are not at fault.

"We have employees that we assign to handle the absentee ballots that come in," said Enola C. Rice, spokeswoman for the Postal Service's South Florida District. "So all the absentee ballots that are received by the Postal Service are processed and delivered immediately."

She said most local mail is delivered in one day.

Some, like 68-year-old Myrna Davis, depended on her absentee ballot to vote. The Sunrise resident's husband has an artificial hip. After they waited weeks for an absentee ballot, they decided to go to an early voting site. But after a three-hour wait in line, they gave up.

"The heat was too great," Davis said. "Although there was air conditioning, there were so many people there, I couldn't tolerate it."

Local college students attending Florida State University in Tallahassee are frustrated because they have yet to receive absentee ballots and are unable to reach officials in Broward County. They have been calling Leon County's supervisor of elections, where the university is, to ask for help.

"Students have told us that they can't communicate with Broward County right now," said Ion Sancho, Leon County's supervisor of elections. "The only way that they can ask for an absentee ballot is electronically to Broward County: E-mail, fax or Web services."

Those living out of town can call Broward election officials and request another ballot, which officials said will be sent through overnight mail.

As of Tuesday, 126,220 absentee ballots have been requested from Broward County elections officials and 67,249 people have voted early, Salas said.

Broward election officials say they are overwhelmed. Their phone lines were never equipped to handle the volume of calls they have experienced, they say, and they blame their limitations on the confined spaces within the county administration building.

"It's a real, real problem," Salas said.

County officials say the elections office, which oversees more than 1 million voters, has 158 available lines. But throughout the day, voters who call the office are greeted by busy signals or filled voicemails.

"They're inundated, they're inundated," Salas said. "My phone mail is constantly full. I clear my voice mails twice a day and I have 30 each time."

In comparison, the Miami-Dade elections office, which manages slightly fewer registered voters, has 400 available lines, according to Seth Kaplan of Miami-Dade elections.

The possibility of adding more phone lines or staff before Nov. 2, election officials say, looks dim. Salas said there would be about 6,000 poll workers on Election Day. Miami-Dade will have 7,000, Kaplan said.

"I don't know that we could get any more people and more resources," Salas said. "At this point in time, training is coming to a close. Clerks are picking up their supplies on Friday. Everything is wrapping up by now."

At the Southwest Regional Library in Pembroke Pines, crowds swelled to the point where library officials asked for relief.

"The crowds had jammed the space," said Bob Cannon, director of Broward County's library system. "It's a mob scene. We asked the supervisor of elections to look at the problem. They rearranged the lines."

Pete Corwin, assistant to County Administrator Roger Desjarlais, said the problem at the early voting locations was not caused by a lack of voting machines, but rather a lack of laptop computers and poll workers to process the voters.

At Howard Forman Health Park in Pembroke Pines, the wait was about 2 1/2 hours by the afternoon.

Arlene Ruotolo, of Cooper City, said she requested an absentee ballot but never received it.

posted October 27, 2004 12:47 PM            

You're welcome to not read my posts and comments if the truth offends you.

Of course, if you think I'm posting lies, you could rebut them...if you can.

And if you can't, what does that tell you about John Heinz Kerry?

posted October 27, 2004 01:51 PM            

Now, they say they want to play nice and complain about aggressive posts and tactics, while continuing their own attacks.

Well, I don't know what the hell else they would now expect from a Leo Sun, Leo Moon, Leo Pluto, Mars in Aries, Scorpio rising person who asked nicely to knock off the personal attacks on the President and stick to issues and policies.

You think perhaps I'm a secret Kerry supporter trying to drive others into the Kerry camp by generating sympathy for him by scathing attacks on his character, judgment and record?

posted October 27, 2004 04:31 PM              

Anyways, I understand. Im not a Bush fan in any way shape or form, but I can respect him as a human being. I have actually been in an angel therapy chat room where they were saying Bush was a member of this alien "reptilian" species that was infiltrating out politics and media trying to destroy the earth. I had a good laugh at that theory.

posted October 28, 2004 12:31 AM              

As for Congress voting for the war in Iraq, and as for Kerry voting for the war in Iraq, he did and they did. But as Kerry said to Bush in the debate when Bush said he voted for the war, Bush lied to Congress. He told them they had proof that there were WMD's in Iraq and that Hussein was building nuclear weapons. So just as he lied to the American people, Bush also lied to Congress. Sen.Byrd was upset that Congress did not take longer to debate and discuss the war and see all the evidence. But in light of 9/11 Congress just trusted the word of the President. He duped them and he duped us.

No, I certainly don't think that Kerry is going to be able to pull the troops out of Iraq immediately and pretend it never happened. That would be very naive. Kerry has never said he is going to pull the troops out either. Bush said he said that. Kerry made that clear in the debates. What he said is that we are stuck there and have to see it to the end. I deal with reality. I know that is going to take decades just like Vietnam and cost billions and billions of dollars of our resources. It has been proven historically that nations that spend all of their resources on war soon fall. Because you can't build up your own nation while using all your resources for the purpose of war. As it is it is going to take longer than I will live to pay off the enormous national debt that Bush has run up. There was no national debt when he took office. Clinton balanced the budget. In just 4 years we have a national debt that is headed up to the trillions of dollars. The highest national debt this country has ever had. And he keeps spending. George W. Bush ran two or three companies that he owned into bankruptcy and as Gov. of Texas he ran the state into bankruptcy. So what he has done with the national debt is nothing new for him. As a rich kid I don't think he learned how to manage money or be responsible in his spending.

What electing Kerry for President will acheive is it will prove to the rest of the world that the majority of Americans do not support Bush's policies. The rest of the countries in the world are not going to ever work with the Bush administration after he thumbed his nose at them and the UN and out and out told them that if they are not with us they are considered enemies. Kerry will work to restore the damage done by Bush in the world and the damage he did to our image as a nation. He will be able to get more cooperation from other nations to help us rebuild Iraq and bring democracy there. No one is going to work with Bush with his go it alone arrogance. That is how the rest of the world see him, as arrogant. Whatever our President does he does in our name as citizens of this country so most of the world think we all support Bush. I found that out traveling through Canada to Edmonton by car last fall. The Canadian people, like other nations, don't like Bush and his cabinet. He treated them badly too when Prime Minister Chiron refused his pre-emptive strike on Iraq. They thought we all agreed with Bush and the war. When you told them you didn't then they would tell you what they thought of Mr. Bush.

Kerry will be able to work better with other nations of the world and gain their trust again, he will work to restore America's image in the world and get other nations and the UN to help with the rebuilding of Iraq. That will also take the burden off of the American people who are solely paying for this war. The resorces for education of our children and everything else for this country has all gone to the Iraq war. With the help of other nations our burden will be lightened and we can use those resources at home where it it gravely needed. A lot of states have gone bankrupt under Bush's administration and due to his being a "war president."

But Kerry never said he was going to pull out of Iraq. He said we have to see it to the end. Colin Powell warned Bush that if he went into Iraq he would own it. Meaning we would be there a long, long, long, long time. We all knew that. We all knew it would be another Vietnam and last for decades. If Bush is elected things are just going to get worse in Iraq, worse in the world and worse in this country. More and more people are living in poverty in America under his administration due to job loss. The abortion rate has climbed higher under his administration and that coincides with the rise in poverty in America.

Here is some good news for a Kerry victory. He is from Boston you know. Tonight, under a total eclipse of the moon the Boston Red Sox broke an 80 some year old curse and won the World Series. It was the first World Series to ever be played in history under a total eclipse of the moon. Sounds like a good omen to me.

posted October 28, 2004 01:51 AM              

The only proof Bush claimed to have regarding WMD is that Iraq had records of making WMD but had no records of what was done with those WMD. That part is true, we still dont know what was done with those weapons, Iraq COULDVE distroyed them or COULDVE hid them very well somewhere...but we still dont know what happened. Granted, I personally dont think thats quite enough of a reason to immediatly go to war, but apparently Bush felt a reason to be alarmed. I can understand why a lot of the democrats voted yes to the war. Honestly, it was gonna end up happening anyways somewhere down the line, and I think that there were a lot of politicians debating with themselves saying "well, this is something that needs to be done...but does it really need to be done RIGHT NOW"