In Collier, for instance, 3.3 percent of the ballots cast didn't have presidential votes recorded. The six counties with the lowest percentage of rejected votes, all under 1 percent, can each use optical scanning systems. Those on the front lines in Collier are less optimistic about that timetable. If it gets into next year, we have no way of switching over a system and being ready for a September election. Realistically, we're looking at 2004.
Money is another problem.
But you have some counties up in North Florida that are dirt poor. An election-reform task force convened by Gov. Bush is asking those very questions. State legislators expect to do the same when they return to Tallahassee in March, with Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, having already drafted legislation to create a commission to study election laws. On the national level, a group called the National Commission on Election Standards and Reform is exploring ways to make voting easier, and more accurate, across the country. Jennifer Edwards, Collier County's elections supervisor, will join her counterparts from Florida's other 66 counties in Kissimmee next week at an annual meeting that's sure to include much discussion of the recent ballot woes.