By KEITH GRANT
For decades, Long Beach retirees have aimed for the Sunshine State to get away from the stress and chaos that New York can supply. Snowbirds aside, these former barrier islanders form a small army of year-round new Floridians, with many coming together annually for a Long Beach-Florida reunion.
Had they acted as a voting block of one sort or another, they could have turned the 2000 presidential election into something akin to a landslide in comparison to the slim margin that's held for over a week. Although divided on who they backed, and continue to back, many of them are none too enamored with the goings-on of their adopted state.
"It stinks!" said John Trumm, now a two-decade Florida resident. "It's so disgusting, what's going on. It's unbelievable."
A Bush supporter, Mr. Trumm pins the blame on the voters, themselves, for the mess that the election has become.
"The trouble is these people just don't punch the ballots all the way through," he said. Despite the roller-coaster coverage the news networks provided from Florida throughout election night, Mr. Trumm said he remained glued to the TV nearly through morning.
"I watched it all night. I'm a nut," he said. "I just hope it gets resolved."
Pompano Beach resident Betty Knox found the historic week both frustrating and exciting. A former Democratic party committeewoman, Ms. Knox said the chaos is somewhat reminiscent of the past.
"It reminds me of the exciting Long Beach elections in the Fifties and Sixties," she said. "They used to be of prime interest ... very testy and very exciting. It was mostly just the Democratic primaries, since the Republicans didn't have much power then."
As to the situation in her new state, Ms. Knox said she felt it made Floridians "look like we don't know what we're doing." However, she does believe the now infamous butterfly ballot was confusing to many voters in neighboring Palm County.
"It was confusing. My daughter-in-law is in Palm County and had the same experience they're talking about," Ms. Knox said. "But she went to vote at 6 P.M., and by then they took pains to explain to her what to do. Maybe in those last few hours they realized what was happening."
One former Long Islander, Josh Manning, now a Palm County journalist, said he had studied the ballot for days before the election, even publishing it in his own paper. Still, he insists he left the voting poll baffled: "I checked it twice, but I still left confused by it."
Farther north, in Tampa, former Long Beacher Jim Leonardi laughed at his downstate neighbors. "Come on, how stupid do you have to be to screw up your vote? We've put the presidency in these people's hands?"
Meanwhile, like millions of other Americans, Ms. Knox went to bed election night after the declaration of Bush's "victory" shortly after 2 A.M., and a week later remained even more confused than she was the following morning.
"The news is just as confusing to me as it is to anyone. We're all really feeling the same frustration as the rest of the country."
Eleanor Newman, a Boca Raton resident with husband Yale, shared those sentiments. A Gore supporter, Ms. Newman said, "It's so mixed up. I can't understand the whole thing. There seems to be too much going on that we don't know about."
Back on the streets of Long Beach, a couple of residents did not want their names used, but had just as much to say about the election night events. "It was surreal," one West End resident said. "I went to bed when it was undecided, and [when] I woke up, I couldn't believe it was still undecided! I really feel like we're not going to have a president before Christmas. This [recount] is going nationwide. Florida might not even matter."
Another man added his personal concerns about the long-term consequences of the recount controversy: "I watched [the coverage] all night. It was great. I loved it! But now I'm watching it kill my stocks. I just want the thing over, already. I don't care [who wins] anymore."
Mr. Trumm, a member of the Long Beach Police Department for 31 years before retiring to Florida with wife Thea, echoed those comments. He simply hopes the whole predicament ends quickly.
"Everyone around here is upset by this," he said. "They just want it to get resolved."
