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CWA Members Protest Vote, Observe Count in Florida
The emotions that raged across the country in the aftermath of Election 2000 hit Florida like a hurricane — and CWA members put themselves at the center of the storm.
“Talk about gut-wrenching, this is living it,” Ed Ryan, president of CWA Local 3112 in West Palm Beach, said a few days after the election. “There’s more media, more attorneys, more notaries in town…we’ve never seen anything like it.”
As Vice President Al Gore fought for a full vote count in Florida, labor stood solidly behind him, holding “Count Every Vote” press conferences and demonstrations from Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties in the south to the state capital of Tallahassee in the north.
“Some of us have been to practically all the protests we’ve had here so far,” said Rick Poulette, president of CWA Local 3181 in Palm Beach County, which represents many of the county’s public workers. Office employees, however, including elections workers in the embattled county, aren’t among its members.
A combination of old equipment, confusing ballots and human error at many Florida precincts led to tens of thousands of disputed ballots. Counting machines rejected ballot cards that weren’t punched firmly enough or were double-punched, among other problems. The count certified by Florida election officials Nov. 26 gave George W. Bush the state by a mere 537 votes, a number that continued to be disputed at press time.
Florida’s 25 Electoral College votes would give Bush 271 electoral votes, enough to win the presidency. In the popular vote nationwide, Gore continued to lead by more than 300,000 votes.
Labor and civil rights leaders have raised serious questions about whether Florida’s public officials acted fairly throughout the recount, or were motivated by partisan politics. “For either Florida officials or Gov. (Jeb) Bush to pretend that the vote is complete or legitimate is an affront to American voters and to all citizens of conscience,” said Marilyn Lenard, the state’s AFL-CIO president and a member of CWA Local 3101.
Bias wasn’t restricted to top-level officials, though. At an early protest at the county’s emergency management center, where ballots were recounted, Poulette said a police officer told him he had to leave his “Gore” sign outside a roped-off area where demonstrators were gathered. He didn’t argue, figuring no placards were allowed inside. What he saw moments later made him angry. “The place was full of Bush signs,” he said.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and other minority activists have charged that hundreds, if not thousands, of African-Americans were denied their right to vote.
The NAACP says it has gathered 486 complaints and taken more than 300 pages of sworn testimony from people who say they were blocked from voting, the Washington Post reported. The Justice Department is investigating.
An analysis in the Miami Herald indicates that Gore was the intended winner in Florida by about 23,000 votes — had all the ballots been properly punched and counted.
CWAers Observe Recount
Several CWA members and staff were among hundreds of volunteers who served as vote recount observers. They included Poulette in Palm Beach County and, in Broward County, Gail Marie Perry, a member of Local 3104, and District 3 Staff Representative Gary McCallister.
McCallister took vacation time and worked two afternoons and evenings in Broward. “In the news media, they’re talking about how monotonous it was,” he said. “It certainly was repetitious, but it was anything but boring. It was exhilarating. I left there after my first shift and couldn’t wait to get back the second day.”
After about a half-hour of training, McCallister said Broward volunteers were assigned to manual recount stations — one Democratic observer, one Republican. They worked with two election office employees who were also divided along party lines.
Ballots that were obviously cast for one candidate or the other went into separate piles. Ballots that the group couldn’t agree on went in a “challenge” pile and were passed on to the county’s canvassing board. McCallister said 1 to 2 percent of the thousands of ballots they looked at wound up there.
Discerning a voter’s intent was easy in some cases, he said. For instance, he said some chads had a hole all the way through them, a clear punch. Yet the chad itself wasn’t perforated.
McCallister said one of the election employees would pick up a ballot, check it, pass it to the other election worker and then they would pass them to the observers. For a while his first day, he said the Republican observer was clearly trying to slow down the process.
“He was taking 20 seconds at a time, sometimes more to look at the ballot, even when it was a clear, clean ballot,” he said. McCallister complained to a floor manager, leading both a Republican and Democratic supervisor to keep an eye on the man. Eventually, he was removed.
The situation in Florida has been “like a roller coaster for us,” McCallister said. “You’ve just got a knot in your stomach,” he said. “You’re so close, and you’ve worked so hard.”
Some CWA members found themselves on national TV as cameras panned crowds at protests. But one retired member had a full half-hour in the spotlight.
Paulette Wimberly, past chair of the legislative committee of CWA Local 3121, was asked to take calls on C-Span because she is one of Florida’s 25 Democratic electors. She spent just over 30 minutes on the air the morning of Nov. 10.
“People wanted to know who I was,” Wimberly said. “I told them I worked for Bell South as a technician for 31 years and I retired in February. I told them I was born and raised in Miami and that I was with the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.”
Wimberly noted that polls show that 93 percent of African-Americans voted for Gore. Given the Election Day problems at heavily black precincts in south Florida — from antiquated voting machines to polling books that didn’t include the names of all registered voters — she has no doubt about the intended winner in Florida.
“If they do the numbers, Gore won,” she said. “It’s a slam-dunk.”
“Talk about gut-wrenching, this is living it,” Ed Ryan, president of CWA Local 3112 in West Palm Beach, said a few days after the election. “There’s more media, more attorneys, more notaries in town…we’ve never seen anything like it.”
As Vice President Al Gore fought for a full vote count in Florida, labor stood solidly behind him, holding “Count Every Vote” press conferences and demonstrations from Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties in the south to the state capital of Tallahassee in the north.
“Some of us have been to practically all the protests we’ve had here so far,” said Rick Poulette, president of CWA Local 3181 in Palm Beach County, which represents many of the county’s public workers. Office employees, however, including elections workers in the embattled county, aren’t among its members.
A combination of old equipment, confusing ballots and human error at many Florida precincts led to tens of thousands of disputed ballots. Counting machines rejected ballot cards that weren’t punched firmly enough or were double-punched, among other problems. The count certified by Florida election officials Nov. 26 gave George W. Bush the state by a mere 537 votes, a number that continued to be disputed at press time.
Florida’s 25 Electoral College votes would give Bush 271 electoral votes, enough to win the presidency. In the popular vote nationwide, Gore continued to lead by more than 300,000 votes.
Labor and civil rights leaders have raised serious questions about whether Florida’s public officials acted fairly throughout the recount, or were motivated by partisan politics. “For either Florida officials or Gov. (Jeb) Bush to pretend that the vote is complete or legitimate is an affront to American voters and to all citizens of conscience,” said Marilyn Lenard, the state’s AFL-CIO president and a member of CWA Local 3101.
Bias wasn’t restricted to top-level officials, though. At an early protest at the county’s emergency management center, where ballots were recounted, Poulette said a police officer told him he had to leave his “Gore” sign outside a roped-off area where demonstrators were gathered. He didn’t argue, figuring no placards were allowed inside. What he saw moments later made him angry. “The place was full of Bush signs,” he said.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and other minority activists have charged that hundreds, if not thousands, of African-Americans were denied their right to vote.
The NAACP says it has gathered 486 complaints and taken more than 300 pages of sworn testimony from people who say they were blocked from voting, the Washington Post reported. The Justice Department is investigating.
An analysis in the Miami Herald indicates that Gore was the intended winner in Florida by about 23,000 votes — had all the ballots been properly punched and counted.
CWAers Observe Recount
Several CWA members and staff were among hundreds of volunteers who served as vote recount observers. They included Poulette in Palm Beach County and, in Broward County, Gail Marie Perry, a member of Local 3104, and District 3 Staff Representative Gary McCallister.
McCallister took vacation time and worked two afternoons and evenings in Broward. “In the news media, they’re talking about how monotonous it was,” he said. “It certainly was repetitious, but it was anything but boring. It was exhilarating. I left there after my first shift and couldn’t wait to get back the second day.”
After about a half-hour of training, McCallister said Broward volunteers were assigned to manual recount stations — one Democratic observer, one Republican. They worked with two election office employees who were also divided along party lines.
Ballots that were obviously cast for one candidate or the other went into separate piles. Ballots that the group couldn’t agree on went in a “challenge” pile and were passed on to the county’s canvassing board. McCallister said 1 to 2 percent of the thousands of ballots they looked at wound up there.
Discerning a voter’s intent was easy in some cases, he said. For instance, he said some chads had a hole all the way through them, a clear punch. Yet the chad itself wasn’t perforated.
McCallister said one of the election employees would pick up a ballot, check it, pass it to the other election worker and then they would pass them to the observers. For a while his first day, he said the Republican observer was clearly trying to slow down the process.
“He was taking 20 seconds at a time, sometimes more to look at the ballot, even when it was a clear, clean ballot,” he said. McCallister complained to a floor manager, leading both a Republican and Democratic supervisor to keep an eye on the man. Eventually, he was removed.
The situation in Florida has been “like a roller coaster for us,” McCallister said. “You’ve just got a knot in your stomach,” he said. “You’re so close, and you’ve worked so hard.”
Some CWA members found themselves on national TV as cameras panned crowds at protests. But one retired member had a full half-hour in the spotlight.
Paulette Wimberly, past chair of the legislative committee of CWA Local 3121, was asked to take calls on C-Span because she is one of Florida’s 25 Democratic electors. She spent just over 30 minutes on the air the morning of Nov. 10.
“People wanted to know who I was,” Wimberly said. “I told them I worked for Bell South as a technician for 31 years and I retired in February. I told them I was born and raised in Miami and that I was with the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.”
Wimberly noted that polls show that 93 percent of African-Americans voted for Gore. Given the Election Day problems at heavily black precincts in south Florida — from antiquated voting machines to polling books that didn’t include the names of all registered voters — she has no doubt about the intended winner in Florida.
“If they do the numbers, Gore won,” she said. “It’s a slam-dunk.”