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American Morning

In Florida, Voting Debacle Reminiscent of 2000 Presidential Stalemate

Aired September 12, 2002 - 08:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Just when Floridians thought it was safe to go to the polls comes a voting debacle reminiscent of the 2000 presidential stalemate. Technical and human errors have combined to keep election officials from determining the winners of Tuesday's Democratic primary for governor.
John Zarella is standing by in Miami to let us know exactly what went wrong.

Good morning, John.

Are you still scratching your head today?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

I heard you folks talking about some polls didn't open until noon. In some places in South Florida, that would have been good. Some polls that were supposed to open at 7:00 a.m. didn't open until 4:00 p.m. in Dade County.

So once again, a fiasco in South Florida, in particular, after the 2000 election. All of that old punch card voting equipment thrown out in the state. The newest technology has been put in in Florida, but it didn't make any difference. Poll workers didn't show up at many polls in Dade and Broward County. In some places, they didn't turn the machines on quick enough in order to get to warm up so they could start on time, at 7:00 a.m. And so we have another fiasco here in South Florida, and Florida secretary of state and the governor not sugar coating their disappointment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SMITH, FLA. SECY. OF STATE: Two counties, you know, get, you know, f minus minus minus. Totally unacceptable.

GOV. JEB BUSH, FLORIDA: It is just unconscionable that two of the most prosperous counties in this state seem not to be able to run an election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Until very early this morning, they were still counting the votes here in South Florida for the gubernatorial race to see who will face Jeb Bush. Would it be Janet Reno, who had a double digit lead just a couple of weeks ago, or Bill McBride, who has staged an incredible comeback, turning it around. McBride now appears to have the lead and will probably be declared the winner. He has about an 8,000 vote lead. But because of the serious problems in South Florida, in Dade and Broward County, which was Reno's stronghold, it is possible we could have an automatic recount begin, once again, very similar to what happened in 2000. Because if the error is less than 1/2 of 1 percent, the margin of difference, it will automatically have a recount.

So here we go again in South Florida. Never a dull moment when it comes to elections.

This is John Zarrella reporting live from Miami -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks so much, John.

Now with his perspective on the chad-less catastrophe and the president's speech to the U.N. a little bit later on this morning, we are joined by CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: Good morning.

ZAHN: Good morning.

So Janet Reno doesn't know, trailing by 8,000 votes, whether she will get a recount or not.

GREENFIELD: I guess after all we went through yesterday and we're talking about what the new normal is, I think one of the things we can say is the old normal is you have an election in Florida and you don't know who won. It may be a tradition, you know, like throwing out the first ball to a baseball game, or the swallows coming back to Capistrano or seven-year locusts.

But I think beyond the obvious hilarity that this is bringing to Florida, or as it is now being called by some "Flori-duh," many comments about the impact of excessive sun, not just on skin, but on the ability to count.

One of the interesting questions is, who does this help? Does it help Jeb Bush or does it help whoever wins the Florida governor's race? "The Miami Herald's" analysis is that it looks like it's Mr. McBride, but we don't know. Because you could...

ZAHN: But there is a possibility, I guess, with 99 percent of the precincts county, if it's any tighter than 8,000 votes, Janet Reno may get a recount?

GREENFIELD: You remember this, don't you?

ZAHN: Oh, sure.

GREENFIELD: Deja vu all over again, what the rules. At least they won't have hanging chads, because it's all machines, and it's also one of the poll workers in one of the counties plugged a voting machine in, and it didn't work, and hours later, they realized that the outlet was not powered.

ZAHN: Oh, come on.

GREENFIELD: This is what they call human error, and there was plenty of it.

ZAHN: My favorite story is poll workers inside the polls yelling obscenities at people trying to get in to vote, telling them they were closed, when the state had ordered them to open.

You know, David Barry actually, probably, to analyze this.

But on the one hand, you could say, well, it really hurts the Democrats, because it doesn't give the winner that momentum, particularly if it's McBride, who closed the 40-point gap.

ZAHN: But also it's incredibly humiliating to Governor Bush. They make it quite clear. You could hear the ire in his voice when he talked about what went on.

GREENFIELD: That's true. The Republican argument is, look, it's all up to counties, and they're all Democratic counties, so.

ZAHN: Let's move on to the other Bush, President Bush, the one who finds himself before the U.N. today as he makes a major address on Iraq. Give us a context of the importance of the speech and what the president has to say to convince some of those wavering allies that military action might be necessary if the U.N. can't get inspector back in?

GREENFIELD: I think the key for this president, like presidents in general who go to the U.N. when America is involved in a conflict, is to convince that body that there is somehow an international basis for what they're doing and that peace is really what's at stake, that the United States is no some kind of unilateral country going off and creating war.

If you look at past examples, when Richard Nixon went to the United Nations, when America was involved in Vietnam, he sounded a peace note, I mean, he said, we in the United States want to end the war in Vietnam and we're ready to take every reasonable step to achieve that goal, but we cannot accept a settlement that would arbitrarily dictate the fate of South Vietnam.

Look at what President Clinton said. Richard Holbrooke was here a few moments ago talking about the Koslo intervention. Here's what Clinton said to the U.N. about that American initiative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We cannot do everything everywhere, but simply because we have different interests in different parts of the world, does not mean we can be indifferent to the destruction of innocence in any part of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: And maybe most tellingly, just a year ago, when President Bush went to the U.N. after the terrorist attacks, he tried to argue that it was the entire international community, not just the United States, that was threatened by what had happened.

Here is what he said:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every nation has a stake in this cause. As we meet, the terrorists are planning more murder, perhaps in my country, or perhaps in yours. This threat cannot be ignored. This threat cannot be appeased. Civilization itself, the civilization we share, is threatened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Now, if you take these two examples, what we've heard of the three, and you put them together, I think what you get is this, first, I think the president needs to extend some kind of olive branch. It can't just be a declaration of military action. That's why all the morning stories that coming out from -- quote -- "senior administration officials" are talking about a deadline for inspection.

The other one is to say it's your fight, too. This is not America against Iraq, I think he will have to say. It is a threat to the whole international community if this man, this country, develops weapons of mass destruction. And that's why it's not against us against you, you have to stand with us in this effort.

ZAHN: From what we've seen leaked out from the speech, and very quickly in closing, isn't it abundantly clear that the strategy they're going to use is, look, let's get U.N. inspections in place, let's set a deadline, although the president is not going to ask for a specific deadline, but certainly it's going to be a limited amount of time to carry off those inspections, and then they don't comply, then military action?

GREENFIELD: Right, and very quickly, it's not just the international community he has to convince, or Russia, but people like Republican senator from Nebraska Chuck Hagel, who has been one of the most vocal opponents of military action here in the country, not from the Democratic side, but from his own side, so there are many different audiences at this speech.

ZAHN: You will be back with Aaron and me at about 10:00 when we start getting a preview of the president's speech and take the secretary-general of the U.N.'s speech, which will proceed the president's speech by 15 minutes or so.

See you in a little bit.

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