Originally Posted by MSNBC

Florida Election Official Arrested
October 30, 2004 11:27PM

(AP) - This afternoon an unnamed election official in Florida was arrested for tampering with the presidential election. According to sources in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the election official had been questioning would-be early voters on how they intented to cast their votes inside the booth. The official reportedly vigorously harassed supporters of the Bush/Cheney ticket until an outraged voter reported his actions to the local police department, who in turn forwarded the complaint to the appropriate Florida state election officials.

In the 2000 election, Miami-Dade County swayed narrowly to Republican George W. Bush. So narrowly, in fact, that the final vote count in that county for the 2000 election remains in dispute to this day.

Witnesses say that the election official - whose name has not been released - had apparently been attempting to conduct his own exit polls. When, based on his personal calculations, he established that Bush was maintaining a considerable lead over Democratic nominee John Kerry, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Co-workers, who told police and state-level election officials that they did not report the man because he threatened their lives and the lives of their families, said that the man began to become violently confrontational with Bush supporters, calling them "idiots," "rednecks," "warmongers" and "murderers," in addition to a full compliment of more vulgar insults.

Miami-Dade County and Florida state election officials were quick to respond to the incident, calling it "isolated" and the work of an "obviously crazed individual."

When asked for comment, Senator Kerry would reply only, "Obviously, it troubles me that an election official would be harassing voters and discouraging them from exercising their rights. However, I must say that I am flattered to have such enthusiasm in my favor."

When informed of Senator Kerry's remarks, President Bush stated that the Senator's underhanded praise of such behavior was indicative of his desperation in the final days leading up to the election.

Charges against the official have been filed and a press release is anticipated on Monday morning at 9:00AM EDT to address the events of this afternoon in greater detail.