In Florida, a Vote of Confidence That Election Debacle Won't Recur

In Palm Beach County, Elections Supervisor Theresa A. LePore, the woman who designed the "butterfly" ballot that helped trigger a constitutional crisis in 2000, isn't worried this time around. She hasn't been watching the convention; the television in her office is tuned to such vintage shows as "Gunsmoke" and "Leave It to Beaver."

"We've got an excellent system, in my opinion," said LePore, 49. But with a smile, the former Democrat acknowledges she wears not one but two good-luck charms these days: a gold horn and a bracelet designed to ward off the evil eye.

"I don't have a clue who will win," LePore said. "But I hope it's by big margins."

President Bush won Florida in 2000 by 537 votes after a long, hotly disputed recount. Florida -- with 27 electoral votes -- is again key to the strategies of Republicans and Democrats.

The state today looks as polarized as it was in the last presidential election. One newspaper poll this week found a statistical dead heat, with 47% of likely voters in favor of Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, 44% for Bush and 3% for independent Ralph Nader.

Not everyone in Florida is as confident as LePore.

"We are not free of problems," said Daniel A. Smith, professor of political science at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "There are flaws with the electronic voting machines."

And a list used to purge felons from voter rolls was recently shown to contain errors.

The 2000 election in Florida was plagued by disputes in tallying votes and in deciding what constituted valid ballots. The next year, the state adopted sweeping electoral reforms. More than $93 million in state and federal funds was appropriated for new equipment and other measures to prevent future debacles. But problems have recently surfaced.

Palm Beach and other large urban areas -- 15 counties in all -- have bought state-of-the-art, ATM-like machines to replace the old punch-card ballots. Florida's other 52 counties are using an older but tested method of voting: optical-scan machines, in which circles or ovals on the ballot are colored in by voters, like a college admissions test.