Election Day in Florida could go away, according to Local 6 News.Florida's elections supervisors have proposed dramatic reforms to eliminate Election Day, replace it with an 11-day election season and eliminate voting precincts.
The association of the state's 67 election chiefs voted in concept at its annual winter meeting Tuesday to informally present the idea to state lawmakers and begin building support for voting changes in the state that was the epicenter of the overtime 2000 election.
"I think the voters spoke loud and clear in the general election of 2004 that they want other options than to be limited to 12 hours on a Tuesday to vote," said Bill Cowles, Orange County supervisor of elections and president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections."We should seize upon the opportunity in 2005 to make the changes so we can try it in 2006."
The meeting was briefly interrupted by three protesters who burst in through an exit door and stomped to the podium in opposition to Palm Beach County elections supervisor Theresa LePore.
LePore, who lost her re-election bid in August, became nationally known for designing the "butterfly ballot," which some critics said led thousands of voters who intended to support Vice President Al Gore to miscast their ballot.
A woman in the group announced she was "serving" LePore with papers regarding a dispute with her office over public records.
Cowles pounded the gavel and ordered hotel security to remove the protesters, but they quickly left the room. More than a dozen supervisors offered their public praise of LePore, the only supervisor voted out of office.
During the past election season, voters across the state were able to vote early for the first time and many took advantage of the option. More than 2 million Floridians cast early or absentee ballots -- nearly 2 1/2 times the number of people who voted early in 2000.
Election supervisors said the experience showed them they could move away from the traditional Election Day and a precinct structure many believe is outdated.
Instead of hundreds of precincts in a county, for example, voters could go to any of a few super-voting sites equipped with enough machines and personnel to keep lines at a minimum.
"What we're basically telling the Legislature is the precinct system is an archaic system, which does not serve the intent of the voters very well," said Ion Sancho, Leon County elections supervisor. "Requiring that you go to your precinct to vote is not unlike Caesar requiring everyone in the Roman Empire showing up in the town of birth so you could do a census."
Cowles said supervisors were not adamant about a specific number of days, although 11 would cover at least two weekends. He also said the number of polling sites would be left up to individual counties.
