BY CURTIS MORGAN, CHARLES RABIN AND AMY SHERMANcmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

A bumpy primary, early-voting gridlock, new voting technology, concerns about machine shortages, a small and overtaxed staff, one of the state's lengthiest ballots, a potential record turnout.

Add that up and it's clear why Broward County ranks at the top of the watch list for some national voting watchdogs.

There's also the red-lettered ad still featured at the top of the Broward Supervisor of Elections' website: ''VSTs Needed!'' Those would be technicians to run voting equipment for a presidential election only days away. Pay: $190 a day.

Brenda Snipes, Broward's supervisor of elections, acknowledged there are concerns going into Election Day, but predicted no significant problems. The challenges facing the county, she said during a short news conference this week, were ``no different than anyone else with a large voter block.''

Her confidence isn't shared by two nonpartisan voter advocacy groups, the Washington, D.C.-based Advancement Project and the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition. Both sent letters to Snipes last week laying out a litany of concerns. The Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition also is appealing to Snipes for more bilingual help at precincts.

Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, chairwoman emeritus of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, pointed to Broward's problems in the Aug. 26 primary, when it took 21 hours to finish counting ballots for an election with only an 11 percent turnout. She's also concerned with early voting, where lines in Broward and Miami-Dade stretched from one to three hours on Friday.

''She was severely unprepared,'' Rodriguez-Taseff said of Snipes.

Rodriguez-Taseff's belief: A shortage of two key machines -- electronic voting registers and ballot printers -- slowed early voting. She says Tuesday could overwhelm an ``already strained, poorly planned out system.''

Jennifer Krell Davis, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Kurt Browning, said Tallahassee hasn't seen any reason to put Broward on the radar screen as a potential problem spot.

''Some of our largest counties have had optical scan for years and they have diverse communities,'' she said. ```They haven't had problems with lines on Election Day.''

Leaders in both parties in Broward, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one, are guardedly optimistic.

State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, the House majority whip who is on the ballot herself, called the concerns ''valid,'' but said she was banking on early balloting to reduce the potential for chaos and choking lines.

''Obviously, everybody's on edge,'' she said, ``not only because of the new equipment that takes longer, but because of the lengthy ballot.''

Broward Mayor Lois Wexler said Snipes, a fellow Democrat, had assured her that language issues would be addressed, workers were being trained and that extra optical scanners and electronic voter registers would be dispatched to the largest precincts.

Wexler said the county has pitched in to help Snipes' office, which has only 79 employees and has been handling a surge of new registrations and early and absentee voters with temporary workers, contractors and long overtime hours.

To help ease early voting lines, the county provided 250 workers and footed the bill for six new ballot-on-demand printers last weekend at a cost of $40,000 each.

Wexler said she expects smooth sailing -- but could not rule the possibility of problems. for the rest of the story click here : http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/florida/story/750989.html