The Law in Florida: Ballot design determines presidency?

["Stephen Cooke" <scooke@uidaho.edu>]

Little things mean a lot.
Steve Cooke

Judges have power to overturn elections
WILLIAM MARCH
of The Tampa Tribune


TAMPA - Under a 1998 court ruling, Florida judges have broad authority to
invalidate elections or order new elections in cases in which fraud, or even
unintentional error, results in flawed outcome. "The criteria are very
broad, almost completely undefined, and they grant state judges a great deal
of discretion," said Steve Gey, a constitutional law expert at the Florida
State University College of Law.
Gey said if irregularities are found in Tuesday's vote for president,
proving they affected the outcome wouldn't be hard, because the race is so
close.
The court decision stems from a challenge to the outcome of the 1996
sheriff's race in Volusia County. The state Supreme Court, deciding the case
in 1998, didn't overturn the race, but set standards under which judges
could do so, Gey said.
The standards say the judge can overturn an election if there was fraud or
irregularities that "adversely affect the sanctity of the ballot and the
integrity of the election."
Because the election was so close, and could so easily be affected by any
proven irregularity, Gey said, "that last criteria is almost a giveaway."
Unintentional errors as well as fraud can qualify, Gey said.
If the election were found to be invalid, Gey said, the likely remedy would
be a new election. It could be held just in the county where the
irregularities occurred, or statewide, depending on the circumstances.
In 1998, a judge overturned a Miami mayoral election because of massive
fraud, including absentee- vote fraud, and invalidated Xavier Suarez's
runoff win. His opponent, Joe Carollo, became mayor instead.
But to many Florida political veterans, Tuesday's voting was reminiscent of
the 1988 U.S. Senate race between Buddy MacKay and U.S.  Sen. Connie Mack.
Tuesday night "was like deja vu all over again," Mack said. MacKay was
initially proclaimed the winner, but the outcome was changed by the absentee
ballots - far fewer than the more than 500,000 in Tuesday's voting.
And as in Tuesday's race, there were cries that faulty layout of the ballot
affected the race. Thousands of voters in 1988 apparently failed to vote in
the race because they missed the ballot line in an obscure position at the
bottom of a page.
But complaints in that case didn't change the outcome of the race.


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