Broward County Didn't Do Enough to Help Voters Cast Ballots Early
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| Did the Broward County election supervisors do enough? Ummm, no. |
But is that true?
Early Sunday morning, Scott Arceneaux, the Florida Democrat Party chairman, filed a lawsuit in federal district court to extend early voting on Sunday and Monday after millions of voters suffered through hours-long lines to exercise their democratic right -- and then complained something fierce. The lawsuit said Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward counties had "inadequate polling facilities," and lines had become "prohibitive." (We in South Florida will wait hours in traffic -- but to vote? The line, apparently, must be drawn somewhere.)
After the paperwork hit the courts, things happened startlingly fast. Both Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties opened up more early suffrage. But Broward, for reasons unclear, demurred. On Monday it allowed voters to pick up absentee ballots, but only if they had an appointment. This was puzzling, considering it's the responsibility of county election supervisors to ease the voting process -- not erect more barriers.
But Evelyn Perez-Verdia, spokesperson for the Broward County Supervisor of Elections, says that wasn't what her office did. "We've been doing everything we can," she said. "Everything we can. We've been doing this for months and months and months, telling people which way they can vote. They could vote early. They could vote absentee ballot. They could vote on Election Day."
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