Bill Nelson was one who pushed for the oversight and the election supervisors in those counties agreed.
From the Orlando Sentinel blog:
Nelson: Federal poll watchers OK'd for Florida WASHINGTON -- Federal poll workers will be allowed to monitor the election in Florida on Tuesday, according to to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has pushed for the oversight.
Here's what his office released earlier today: "Sen. Nelson has received word from the (Government Accountability Office) that it has gotten approvals from election supervisors in Broward, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade and Pinellas counties to place federal poll watchers at random precincts on Election Day to study voting access for seniors and people with disabilities."
The state initially balked at the idea, but has since reversed its position after lobbying from Nelson.
There are links at the blog for the letter Bill Nelson sent to Governor Crist, and the one Nelson received from the state.
We heard about this on October 30, but not much was said about it.
DOJ coming to monitor Florida elections. The U.S. Justice Department announced it will send Election Day poll watchers to 59 different places in 23 states, including Hillsborough, Duval and Seminole counties.
Duval's supervisor of elections, Jerry Holland, said DOJ told him it was coming down because of the colossal blunder of the Republican National Committee in sending out weird mailers to Democrats that sought to raise money for John McCain and that identified them as Republicans. Democrats said this was an example of "voter caging." Holland said it wasn't. He checked it out. It was just sloppiness.
..."According to the DOJ press release:
"The observers and Department personnel will gather information on whether voters are subject to different voting qualifications or procedures on the basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority group; whether jurisdictions are complying with the minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act; whether jurisdictions permit voters who are blind, disabled, or unable to read or write assistance by a person of their choice; whether jurisdictions allow voters who are blind to cast a private and independent ballot; and whether jurisdictions comply with the provisional ballot requirements of the Help America Vote Act. To assist in these inquiries, the Department has deployed observers and monitors who speak Spanish, and a variety of Asian and Native American languages. Both the federal observers and Department personnel will coordinate monitoring activities and maintain contact with local election officials."
That sounded to me like the very reason that the
Florida Democrats filed a recent lawsuit. The Florida Democratic Party on Thursday joined in a lawsuit aimed at the Republican Party of Florida and the Republican National Committee to prevent an excess of voter challenges during the presidential election.
Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman applauded Gov. Charlie Crist for extending early voting hours and urged him to warn his fellow Republicans against abusing their rights to challenge voters who, for instance, may not be voting at correct polling place.
"I call on the Governor, the Republican Party and voters of all parties across the Sunshine State to disavow these dishonest tactics so that we can rebuild Florida's electoral integrity and maintain the rights of our citizens to vote in a fair and open election," Thurman said.
The lawsuit was filed by residents of Glades and Duval counties. The Glades resident was targetted for a challenge by Republican in advance of the election.
There have been problems in those counties. Maybe it's a good thing. I just don't know.
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