Florida republicans are trying to
bypass Florida law that states that you can't advocate for a candidate within 100 ft. of a polling place. What they want to do is place signs inside the polling places saying that a vote for Foley is a vote for Negron, his replacement.
MIAMI - The state that gave the world butterfly ballots and the hanging chad is headed for a new battle over whether and how voters should be told that disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley has dropped out of the Florida congressional race.
Foley, a six-term Republican congressman, resigned his office and checked into an alcohol rehab center last week after copies of his overly friendly messages to teen-age male congressional pages set off a scandal that could threaten his party's majority in Congress.
Rules prohibit taking Foley's name off the ballot so close to the Nov. 7 election. So the Republicans' replacement nominee, Joe Negron, asked election supervisors to post signs at the polls telling voters that ballots cast for Foley will actually go to Negron.
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Democrats cried foul, contending that such a notice is tantamount to posting a partisan political advertisement inside voting stations, which is not allowed.
"What they're attempting to do is electioneering communications, which is illegal because you can't do that within 100 feet of a polling place," said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski.
Florida, whose election procedures were ridiculed during the chaotic 2000 presidential election won by President Bush, has no rules governing such notices.
Democrats are complaining that it violates Florida law and the Supervisors of elections has asked the Florid Department of Elections for guidance. The Florida DOE is under the direction of the republicans.