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CNN Live Today
Look at Florida Elections
Aired November 05, 2002 - 10:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: John Zarrella has been out also. He's in Miami-Dade watching things in Liberty City.
And, John, what are you picking up so far this morning, just about three-and-a-half hours into it so far on Election Day?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: That, Bill, seems to be the indication just about everywhere, and here certainly, that indication, as well -- no lines, people taking about three minutes to vote.
Up in Broward County, which was the worst spot where the biggest problems were, the voting seems to be going very smoothly. You know, the issue in Broward County, of course, was that in the pre-voting, lines were four hours long. They expected some 30,000 people to vote pre-vote. They did, but the lines were horrendous. Thought that would translate into long lines again today at the polls.
The lines are certainly longer than they are here in Miami-Dade, but in fact, nowhere near the nightmare scenario that everybody was predicting, at least not yet.
Now, where we are here, we are at the Thena Crowder Elementary School, and here at Thena Crowder, this was really ground zero for the meltdown in Miami-Dade during the September primary. And what happened back then was that they got this place up and running. Then the machines were shut down immediately. They had problems with power here. They didn't get back up online until 4:30 in the afternoon.
Well, Miami-Dade spent a lot of money to solve the problems. They've got 3,000 county workers scouring the county, making sure that the polling places are all up and running. The police department was involved in coordinating the activities here in Miami-Dade.
We saw one of the election monitors came a while ago, and he was telling us that everything was going smooth. That's a gentleman for the Center for Democracy who is down here at the behest of the county, and 96,000 that they paid for the group to come down and monitor the election. Everything's going well so far.
Now, the two candidates already out voting today; of course, the biggest race -- the governor's race here in Florida. And Governor Jeb Bush, as you indicated, appears to be opening up a bigger lead than he had in the last couple of weeks as we go down to the wire here. And Bush voting this morning in Coral Gables, Florida.
And Bill McBride, the Democratic challenger, voting in the town of Thonotosassa -- if I pronounced that correctly -- up north of Tampa.
And I think one of the things, you know, we talked about the president's influence down here over the weekend helping Jeb Bush. It was really more than that. The final debate between Jeb Bush and Bill McBride, Bill McBride was not able to explain convincingly to the public, which is what they wanted to hear, how he was going to pay for some of the programs he wanted like education reform in the state.
So, that has hurt him, and Jeb Bush has capitalized, calling him a tax-and-spend liberal; that the only way he could afford his programs, Bill, was if he were to increase taxes. And of course, in this economy, no one wants to hear the words, "increase taxes."
But the good news is, Florida may not be the place to look for election snafus today. We can hope -- Bill.
HEMMER: Weight off your back, huh, John? A true weight off your back.
Listen, essentially, there are three critical points in this day in terms of people voting. You've already gotten through one. That's the morning rush hour. You're going to have a lunch hour rush, and then an evening rush as well. And I don't know what you can portend going forward right now. But if the lines continue the way you've seen them, then that would suggest that Florida -- at least in your location anyway, and the ones we are hearing about -- is well on its way to curing a lot of its past political problems.
ZARRELLA: Yes, certainly Miami-Dade County. Broward could be a real issue, as you mentioned, particularly in that 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. timeframe, when people decide to go vote this afternoon.
But as we talked about earlier today, I think one of the things that we really probably ought to look at later in the day is the possibility that because of the fear of these horrendously-long lines, that maybe some people got turned off and decided, I'm not going to bother. And that may keep some people from even going to the polls today here in south Florida. I hope that's not the case...
HEMMER: Yes.
ZARRELLA: ... but certainly a possibility -- Bill.
HEMMER: Interesting issue. Thank you, John -- John Zarrella again in Miami-Dade.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired November 5, 2002 - 10:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: John Zarrella has been out also. He's in Miami-Dade watching things in Liberty City.
And, John, what are you picking up so far this morning, just about three-and-a-half hours into it so far on Election Day?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: That, Bill, seems to be the indication just about everywhere, and here certainly, that indication, as well -- no lines, people taking about three minutes to vote.
Up in Broward County, which was the worst spot where the biggest problems were, the voting seems to be going very smoothly. You know, the issue in Broward County, of course, was that in the pre-voting, lines were four hours long. They expected some 30,000 people to vote pre-vote. They did, but the lines were horrendous. Thought that would translate into long lines again today at the polls.
The lines are certainly longer than they are here in Miami-Dade, but in fact, nowhere near the nightmare scenario that everybody was predicting, at least not yet.
Now, where we are here, we are at the Thena Crowder Elementary School, and here at Thena Crowder, this was really ground zero for the meltdown in Miami-Dade during the September primary. And what happened back then was that they got this place up and running. Then the machines were shut down immediately. They had problems with power here. They didn't get back up online until 4:30 in the afternoon.
Well, Miami-Dade spent a lot of money to solve the problems. They've got 3,000 county workers scouring the county, making sure that the polling places are all up and running. The police department was involved in coordinating the activities here in Miami-Dade.
We saw one of the election monitors came a while ago, and he was telling us that everything was going smooth. That's a gentleman for the Center for Democracy who is down here at the behest of the county, and 96,000 that they paid for the group to come down and monitor the election. Everything's going well so far.
Now, the two candidates already out voting today; of course, the biggest race -- the governor's race here in Florida. And Governor Jeb Bush, as you indicated, appears to be opening up a bigger lead than he had in the last couple of weeks as we go down to the wire here. And Bush voting this morning in Coral Gables, Florida.
And Bill McBride, the Democratic challenger, voting in the town of Thonotosassa -- if I pronounced that correctly -- up north of Tampa.
And I think one of the things, you know, we talked about the president's influence down here over the weekend helping Jeb Bush. It was really more than that. The final debate between Jeb Bush and Bill McBride, Bill McBride was not able to explain convincingly to the public, which is what they wanted to hear, how he was going to pay for some of the programs he wanted like education reform in the state.
So, that has hurt him, and Jeb Bush has capitalized, calling him a tax-and-spend liberal; that the only way he could afford his programs, Bill, was if he were to increase taxes. And of course, in this economy, no one wants to hear the words, "increase taxes."
But the good news is, Florida may not be the place to look for election snafus today. We can hope -- Bill.
HEMMER: Weight off your back, huh, John? A true weight off your back.
Listen, essentially, there are three critical points in this day in terms of people voting. You've already gotten through one. That's the morning rush hour. You're going to have a lunch hour rush, and then an evening rush as well. And I don't know what you can portend going forward right now. But if the lines continue the way you've seen them, then that would suggest that Florida -- at least in your location anyway, and the ones we are hearing about -- is well on its way to curing a lot of its past political problems.
ZARRELLA: Yes, certainly Miami-Dade County. Broward could be a real issue, as you mentioned, particularly in that 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. timeframe, when people decide to go vote this afternoon.
But as we talked about earlier today, I think one of the things that we really probably ought to look at later in the day is the possibility that because of the fear of these horrendously-long lines, that maybe some people got turned off and decided, I'm not going to bother. And that may keep some people from even going to the polls today here in south Florida. I hope that's not the case...
HEMMER: Yes.
ZARRELLA: ... but certainly a possibility -- Bill.
HEMMER: Interesting issue. Thank you, John -- John Zarrella again in Miami-Dade.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
