Lida Rodriguez-Taseff
Photo by A.M. Holt
Miami attorney and voting rights activist Lida Rodriguez-Taseff said she has been fired from her post as a Miami-Dade County poll worker after complaining about what she calls improper and illegal voting procedures.
Rodriguez-Taseff, a partner at Duane Morris, was working Sunday as a paid poll worker for the county. She said she complained that county election workers were not reconciling the number of voters signing in with the number of votes cast on machines at the end of the day in a procedure that she said is required by state law.
“They quit doing it, which is a bad idea,” said Rodriguez-Taseff, a former Miami chapter president of the American Civil Liberties Union and a long-time voting rights advocate.
Rodriguez-Taseff fired off letters Sunday night to county attorneys. She said she received a call from an election official Monday telling her, “Your services are no longer needed.”
“I was fired,” said Rodriguez-Taseff.
Assistant County Attorney Oren Rosenthal later confirmed to her that she was “yanked,” she said.
Rosenthal did not return calls for comment by deadline.
Rodriguez-Taseff called Sunday’s voting in Miami-Dade County “a meltdown.”
Elections officials said absentee ballots could be brought in person in Doral. But officials were overwhelmed by voters and locked the doors, leaving nearly 200 voters standing in line outside. An hour later, doors were reopened.
Meanwhile, a coalition of civil rights groups is considering filing a lawsuit in Orlando to extend voting hours Tuesday as a result of lines of up to five hours and other glitches, Rodriguez-Taseff said.
Julie Kay can be reached at (305) 347-6685.
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