BY DAVID KIDWELL AND LISA ARTHUR
dkidwell@herald.com

At least 39 felons -- mostly Democrats -- illegally cast absentee ballots in Broward and Miami-Dade counties in the Nov. 7 elections, according to a Herald analysis of absentee votes in those counties.

Their convictions range from murder and rape to drunk driving and passing bad checks. One is on the state's registry of sexual offenders. Three were registered under Social Security numbers different from those on their criminal records. One is even a poll worker.

``I've been voting ever since voting has been voting,'' said Cheryl Elaine Jones, 50, of Homestead, who has a 15-year-old conviction for dealing cocaine. ``I'm a poll worker. I feel like I'm a one-time felon, and that was years ago. I haven't been in trouble since. I think that all should be thrown out.''

Jones was among 19 felons in Miami-Dade and 20 in Broward who have not had their voting rights reinstated by the Florida Office of Executive Clemency but voted Nov. 7. It is illegal for felons to vote, unless they petition the state to have their rights restored.

Although they make up only a tiny number of the 104,865 absentee ballots cast in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, if felons cast illegal votes in the same percentages at the polls it could amount to more than 470 illegal ballots locally and more than 2,000 statewide.

``I don't think that's an unfair analysis,'' said David Leahy, Miami-Dade supervisor of elections. ``Given the amount of inaccuracies in these databases, I can't say I'm surprised.''

Like other election officials around the state, Leahy matches databases of felons against the voter rolls to eliminate illegal voters. Elections officials statewide say they have made enormous advances to scrub the voter rolls clean of felons in the past two years, since Miami's tainted mayoral election made national news.

Leahy said his office alone has eliminated thousands of felons from the registration rolls since 1998.

``It doesn't please me there is even one left, but I'm pleased we are trying the best we can,'' he said.

Janet Keens, director of the Office of Executive Clemency in Tallahassee, was troubled to find ex-convicts voted.

``I don't know how this could happen now,'' Keens said. ``They show up on my database as felons. These people should not have been allowed to vote.''

Florida is one of just 14 states banning felons from the ballot box, a Civil War-era provision which has come under repeated attacks by Democratic congressional leaders and civil rights groups as discriminatory against blacks. In September, eight inmates backed by a New York civil rights center filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law.

To find felony voters, The Herald compared a list of all absentee voters in both counties to a Department of Corrections database, then verified each conviction in court records and a Florida Department of Law Enforcement database.

Oscar Meza, 44, of Miami, voted absentee despite being sentenced to five years in prison for rape, kidnapping and lewd and lascivious assault on a child in 1993.

Meza is on the FDLE's list of sexual offenders and remains on probation. He could not be reached. He was the only Republican on the list from Miami-Dade. There were three Republicans in Broward. The vast majority of felons casting illegal ballots were Democrats -- 32 of 39. There were three independents.

Doreen John, 22, of Miami, said she thinks it's unfair to keep ex-convicts from voting. She was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison in 1994 on convictions for armed robbery, kidnapping, burglary and carrying a concealed weapon. She cast a ballot Nov. 7.

``Before I got locked up, I voted,'' she said. ``I didn't know I couldn't vote now. I don't think that's fair. If you did something in the past, that should have nothing to do with it.''

Several of the felons interviewed insisted they petitioned to have their rights restored, although the clemency office -- which is solely responsible for granting such privileges -- had no record of it.

Cardell Osborne, 42, of Fort Lauderdale, who served six months in the Broward County Jail for felony cocaine possession in 1992, said he voted in the 1996 presidential election after his rights were reinstated.

``Why did they send me a voter's registration card if I don't have the right to vote?'' he said. ``The state is lying if they say I am not cleared.''

Willie Dan Hartley, 70, of Homestead, said he petitioned for his rights 25 years ago, shortly after his release on convictions for aggravated assault in 1973 and 1967.

``Man, that's a long time ago, that's over with,'' he said. ``I've been voting ever since then.''

Herald database editor Geoff Dougherty contributed to this report.