HR EYE ON THE ELECTION - Election Emergency in Florida?

HR EYE ON THE ELECTION - FLORIDA

It looks like Florida might manage to pull defeat from the jaws of victory. I am not talking about the Florida Gators playing the Georgia Bulldogs this weekend in one of the big games of the 2008 college football season. I am talking about getting the Presidential Election done right in 2008.

The state of Florida has gone to extremes to avoid the systemic problems that resulted in the great Bush-Gore election debacle of 2000. They have established new voting rules, scrapped the suspect electronic voting machines, and spent millions to convert to a scannable paper ballot that creates a paper record of the votes cast. Despite all these efforts, problems ares still happening.

Only in Florida could we have an "early voting emergency"!

As reported in the Miami Herald on Tuesday, Florida Governor Charlie Crist extended early voting hours across Florida to 12 hours a day. after discovering that voting turnout has contributed to long lines at polling sites.

Crist came to the rescue of time-short voters when he used his gubernatorial powers to declare an "early voting emergency" and ordered the polling hours at early voting precincts extended.

Current Florida law allows for early voting to be conducted eight hours a day each weekday and for a total of eight hours during the weekends.

With Crist's order, early voting sites will be open the rest of this week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. They will be open a total of 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday, the last day of early voting.

''It's not a political decision,'' Crist said moments after signing the order, which declares a state of emergency in Florida. "It's a people decision.''

Nearly 1.2 million Floridians had voted as of 5 a.m. Monday -- roughly 10 percent of the state's registered voters.

Way to go, Charlie. You are the Man!