Miami Hurricane, January 26, 2001

              Greek Forum draws new Hood
New ballots, machines, voting system considered
By Gariot Louisna
Senior Staff Writer
Convicted felons and people who voted more than once apparently did their part in electing (icorge W. Bush as the 43rd president on Nov. 7, MOO, according to recent news reports.
About 2,000 illegal ballots were cast, and who could forget the Palm Beach County butterfly ballot controversy, which may have had many voters accidentally cast votes for Pat Buchanan instead of Al Gore.
University of Miami President Edward I Foote II is the co-chair of Gov. jeb Bush’s Task Force on election procedures, commissioned on Dec. 14.
The group has been meeting since earlier this month to figure out just what can be done to revamp the current election system in Florida.
“Wf have to identify the problems and present appropriate solutions,” said Foote, who also said he was flattered when Gov. Bush called to asked him to sit on the task force.
“We have a short time to deal with a complicated topic,” said Foote. The group has till March 1 to present its report and findings to Bush and Florida legislative leaders in lallahasee.
After the group’s first meetings on
Jan. 8-9 in Tallahassee, the group found that Florida needs to eliminate its century old punch-card system.
They also found that the state needs to invest more in educating voters, and has to setup hotline communications between polling places and elections offices.
Early studies show that it would take $45 million for the state to discard the old Votomatics for machines that use optical scanners, already used in 26 counties around the state. Touch-screen computers would cost $200 million.
The task force reconvened again in Orlando on Tuesday.
Entering his final semester as president of the University, Foote said he had to completely rearrange his schedule and put certain responsibilities on hold so that he would be able to devote enough time to the task force.
As for his work with the task force, Foote said he is a “student of elections" ’ and sits on the task force as a “laymen” with no political agenda.
The group includes both Democrat and Republican officials, along with other prominent public figures, including University of Florida Provost David Coburn.
Newspapers, including The Miami Herald and The Sun-Sentinel, praised the governor for commissioning the task force.
Fabian Rodriguez, a graduate student in the School of Engineering, said the governor was wise to take the crucial steps to revamp a system that was ripped apart at the seams last November.
“I think he’s sincere," Rodriguez said of Bush. “He realizes that something
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went wrong with the system. Because he is governor, he knows it’s up to him to begin to look at the system.”
Foote said his team is examining how to handle the system already in place, whether or not the system needs to change, how to handle absentee ballots and whether or not to invest in new voting machines.
The presence of nonpolitical figures, such as Foote, bring a nonpartisan perspective to an issue that has virtually divided the nation along political lines, say observers.
Among them, Juliet Gainsborough, a professor of political science at the UM, who said she had not known Foote was among the 21 members of the task force, let alone leading it.
“Bush probably chose Foote because he is a community leader, not someone seen as a political figure,” Gainsborough said.
Members of the task force aren’t paid to render their expertise, Foote said. The state does, however, pay for travel and other expenses related to the task force.
The day after Vice President Al Gore conceded defeat, ending the battle for Florida’s 25 hody contested Electoral Votes, Gov. Bush commissioned the “Task Force on Election Procedures, Standards and Technology.”
The task force’s March 1 deadline is before the start of the state legislative session.
It will then present its report to Governor Bush, the president of the Florida Senate, speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and the secretary of state. The task force will then be disbanded.
JORGE GALVEZ / Photo EcJtor
SIGNING UP: Joel Zandivar signs up for currently ongoing Spring Recruitment at the Fraternity Forum, Wednesday at the University Center's Flamingo Ballroom D. At the forum Fraternities displayed various symbols of pride and tradition, including trophies and fraternity momentoes, to intice potential new members.
Volume 78, Number 28
WWW.HURRICANE.MIAMI.EDU
Friday, January 26,2001
Foote heads task force on Florida voter reform
By Fawad Siddiqui
News Editor
Angry students, reassuring administrators and a bunch of jolly tow-truck company employees. Welcome to the wild world of UM parking.
The University’s two-phase plan to restructure inadequate on-cam-pus parking facilities hit unexpected snags this semester as “right of way" permitting issues between Miami-Dade County and the City Coral Gables are holding up work on two planned Ponce de Leon Blvd. parking lots, said Sandra Redway, director of the Department of Parking and Transportation.
“It all boils down to permitting,” said Redway, Wednesday. “We have done what we had to do. It’s out of my jurisdiction now.”
Redway added that the delays in construction—of a lot between Stanford Dr. and Granada Blvd., and another across from the Plumer building on Ponce, both of which should would have started over (he Christmas break—are not holding up the other parts of the plan.
“Phase I shuttle enhancement has occurred, and we’ve gotten one or two ‘wows,” she said of the increase from 10 to 12 HurryCane shuttles this semester.
Eight of those shuttles are new and equipped with TVs and VCRs for in-transit messages.
Another part of Phase I that has gone into effect is an annual 16.5 percent increase in parking permit fees for students, to pay for the $20 million plan until it reaches completion in 2005, said Redway.
The University has also leased additional spaces in Metro Lot #42 on Ponce, to make up for the lack of expected spaces from the two new garages there.
Phase II of the plan is still on schedule and has been unaffected by the Phase I delays, Red way said.
“Phase II is not pushed back and should entail construction of a number of new garages: the Pavia Garage, the Mahoney/Pearson Garage and two additional floors to the Ponce Garage,” said Redway.
The plan will mean 445 new spaces in the Ponce Garage. 554 new spaces in the Pavia Garage—across from the Daystar health center— and 625 spaces in the Mahoney/Pearson Garage, said Redway.
Mahoney/Pearson, Redway adds, was not originally part of the parking management plan when it was unveiled last semester, which she sights as example of the department’s progressive stance on the parking problem.
“Once the garages are built, this whole crisis will be over,” said Redway,“It should be one very comfortable situation. I see it being a
HURRICANES IN TOW: Part of the F*arking and Transportation Dept, plan to improve campus parking has been to extend the grace period for campus towngs to two weeks. Here, one of campus contracted towing company, Southland Towing’s trucks displays er\ angry Sebastian on its side. “I’m a big Hurricanes fan,” explained Southland V.P. Peter Hernandez.
model University.”
But while the work is under way toward turning UM into the model University Redway envisions, many
car-driving students say they are bearing the brunt of the parking problem, and are voicing angry opinions on how the school is going
about solving it.
JD Barbosa, junior and president of the Association of Commuter Student, is one of the many upset
over the issue.
“The general feeling of the ACS
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Coral Gables, Florida
Baseball team looks ahead to Omaha
page 6
SPEC FIRM
UM junior battles


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