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Political Activists Harangue Early Voters

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Times Staff Writer

Just when Floridians thought it was safe to go back to the polls, a glitch in an early-voting law has turned normally staid polling sites into free-for-alls with banner-waving, brochure-hawking activists harassing voters who show up to cast ballots.

In passing a law to allow for early voting after the 2000 election debacle, state legislators neglected to add a provision to keep political activists and other campaigners at least 50 feet from the polls, as is the rule on normal election days.

Voters have frequently been forced to push past shouting activists. Some poll sites have featured shoving matches among rival campaigners. And many voters are suspicious of official party observers, even though they’ve been placed at polls to ensure honest results.

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“People were blocking the door, shouting out how to cast your ballot,” said Vicki Trovillion, a Republican observer at the Orange County Department of Elections office. “Some voters shouted back, ‘I know how I want to vote. Don’t you tell me!’ ”

In an angry letter to Gov. Jeb Bush, the president of the state association of elections supervisors accused overzealous campaign supporters of “creating havoc” for voters and poll workers.

Bill Cowles, the supervisor of elections in Orange County, which includes Orlando, said that his office “has been bombarded with phone calls, e-mails and correspondence from the voters because of the harassment they are enduring.”

Bush said that he found the reports “disturbing” and encouraged officials to remove activists “who are intimidating voters through rough language, screaming, or menacing actions.”

Some polls have hired security guards to keep the peace. The confrontations are another black eye on a state where in 2000 officials were accused of running such a sloppy election -- including defective paper ballots and voting machines -- that the U.S. Supreme Court finally intervened after weeks of ballot recounts.

A sweeping reform package passed after the fiasco allowed voters to begin casting ballots 15 days before an election. In its first two days this year, 110,000 voters visited sites statewide and some locations get 3,000 people a day.

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Although officials said a statewide tally was not available, Orange County estimated that 20% of registered voters had filed an absentee ballot or visited an early voting site.

But in this battleground state, early polling places have turned into political trenches where party loyalists have one last go at influencing the vote.

At one Orlando library, a Bush supporter arranged all the magazines on the periodical rack near the polls so they showed the president’s picture. Soon, a Kerry campaigner removed them. When questioned by a librarian, the Kerry man checked out the magazines rather than replace them.

“Give these people credit,” said Linda Tanko, Orange County’s senior deputy supervisor of voter services. “They’re overzealous -- but creative.”

At another library, one campaigner was blocking a children’s reading area. When a parent spoke up, the woman said that “what she was doing was more important than kids reading books,” Tanko said.

At the Orange County elections office this week, opposing parties staked out turf to greet a steady stream of voters. When many complained on the first day, activists have been removed from the front door and forced to stand in a cordoned-off spot along the sidewalk.

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But that hasn’t stopped advocate Karen Moor.

“Would you like a cheat sheet?” she asked one man. “This is how Democrats suggest you vote. Go ahead, take it.”

The man did. Inside, two campaign observers sported party colors: Trovillion, the Republican, wore a red blouse. Tom Murphy, a 33-year-old law student volunteering for the Democrats, wore a blue shirt.

“This has nothing to do with being a conservative,” Trovillion said. “I just love red!”

Dan Drew, a tour escort at the Kennedy Space Center, dismissed the activists. “I hope nobody here is actually influenced by these people,” he said. “Because if you walk through those doors still not knowing who you’re voting for, you don’t deserve to be here anyway.”

But the polling place politicking is still going full throttle. One recent day, a busload of transvestites showed up as part of a “Drag out the Vote” campaign. Not long afterward, workers say, a man in a George W. Bush get-up began wandering the grounds.

“I couldn’t tell if he was pro-Bush or not,” a poll worker said. “But when he refused to sit for a picture with a John Kerry campaign sign, I got my answer.”

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