Florida's deja vu.

Byline: The Register-Guard

In the busiest primary election day of the year, voters in 12 states chose party nominees Tuesday for the November election. While there were some big names involved - Janet Reno, Elizabeth Dole, Bob Smith, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, etc. - the big news of the day came out of Florida, where once again voting was delayed and confusion reigned.

Florida's $32 million renovation of its voting system, triggered by the state's 2000 presidential election debacle, malfunctioned in several counties. The new touch-screen voting machines, supposedly state-of-the-art equipment purchased to replace the discredited punchcard ballots that figured so prominently in 2000, didn't work in all precincts, either because they were improperly installed or because poll workers didn't know how to activate them. In some precincts, poll works didn't even show up. Voting was supposed to begin at 7 a.m. by state law, but some voters had to wait until 11 a.m. or later before being allowed to cast ballots. Many voters with other obligations simply left the polling places without having voted.

Those foul-ups muddied the waters in Florida's hotly contested Democratic gubernatorial primary between former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and political novice Bill McBride. In the early returns, McBride held a lead of fewer than 8,000 votes over Reno. If Reno ends up losing, it would be for several reasons: her connection to the Clinton administration, an upstate/downstate split among Democrats (Reno is from the Miami area; McBride is from Tampa), a stronger campaign by McBride, and a belief among Florida Democrats that McBride would be the stronger candidate against Republican Gov. Jeb Bush (the president's brother) in November.

Adding to the sense of deja vu in the Florida race, Reno's campaign may ask for a recount - sound familiar? - or for the election to be thrown out entirely because so many voters were unable to participate. The malfunctions and other problems with the voting system were concentrated in Reno's south Florida turf. If the stakes weren't so high, Florida's rerun of an election disaster would be amusing. Bush now bears the burden of having led the state during another problem-plagued election, and his only compensation is that his Democratic opponent's nomination may be clouded by suspicions of irregularities.

Elsewhere around the country, Tuesday brought some other interesting developments.

In New Hampshire, Republican Sen. Bob Smith became the first incumbent senator in a decade to be ousted in a primary election. He lost to three-term Congressman John Sununu, son of the state's former governor. Sununu will now face three-term Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in November in what should be a heavily fought contest because the two disagree on almost every issue.

In North Carolina, Elizabeth Dole easily won the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. The former Cabinet member (in both the Reagan and first Bush administrations) will face another familiar name, Erskine Bowles, chief of staff to President Clinton, in a race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Jesse Helms. The Dole-Bowles race could provide a preview of the 2004 presidential contest, because Dole is blaming North Carolina's economic woes, particularly in its textile industry, on the Clinton administration and the Democrats at a time when a Republican president is presiding over an economic downturn.

In New York, following the last-minute withdrawal of former Housing Secretary (and son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo) Andrew Cuomo, state Comptroller H. Carl McCall, an African-American, will be the Democratic nominee against incumbent Republican Gov. George Pataki. The governor didn't help himself because he lost the Independent Party nomination to billionaire businessman Thomas Golisano, who might siphon votes from the GOP side come November.

And in Maryland, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend - yes, of that Kennedy clan - won the Democratic nomination for governor and will face Republican Congressman Robert Ehrlich in November.

Now, it's on to November, where control of Congress and a batch of statehouses and governorships (including Oregon's) are at stake. The fall election season has begun in earnest.