BY KAREN BRANCH

 Scores of Cuban-American Democrats on Monday registered their protest of the Clinton
 administration's predawn seizure of Elian Gonzalez by severing ties to the Democratic
 Party.

 ''I've always voted Democratic, said Isidro Perez, 74, who on Monday went with his wife,
 son and daughter-in-law to the Miami-Dade elections office. All four Cuban-Americans
 switched to independent-voter status.

 ''We loved this country, and look what it did to us.

 In interview after interview, those leaving the Democratic Party said what clinched it for them
 were photographs and TV footage of federal officers taking the 6-year-old from his Miami
 relatives' home at gunpoint. About 60 made the switch with the help of a clerk at the Latin
 Chamber of Commerce in Little Havana. Dozens more either showed up in person at the
 county elections office or called in for advice on making the change, election workers said.

 ''The worst was them putting a machine gun in Elian's face, said Marta Acosta, 58, of Little
 Havana, who along with her husband switched to the Republican Party on Monday at the
 chamber office.

 Tears welled up in the eyes of Miriam Cruz, 52, after she switched from Democrat to the
 GOP: ''It's the only weapon I can use to help Elian.

 Agustin ''Gus Garcia, vice chairman for outreach of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party,
 blames President Clinton, but not his party.

 ''I respect those going to independent as a protest, but those that go Republican are no
 better, said Garcia, who stood vigil outside the home of Elian's Miami relatives when
 federal agents removed him Saturday.

 ''The Republicans never passed [the bill providing] the green card for the child and they
 have a majority. In this situation, I blame the Republicans as I do the president.

 Nor does the county's best-known Cuban-American Democrat, Miami-Dade Mayor
 Alex Penelas, have any intentions of switching parties, said Penelas campaign advisor
 Ric Katz.

 ''He said he needs to work within the party . . ,  for immigration reform -- starting
 with the way INS handles the custody of children,'' Katz said.

 Miami-Dade GOP chairwoman Mary Ellen Miller said Democrats flooded the local
 party office with calls Monday, asking for switch cards.

 ''It's regrettable it had to take something so sad, she said.

 The GOP is already the choice for most Cuban-Americans in the county. Some
 rejected the Democrats in the 1960s, when President John F. Kennedy did not
 provide air support for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. But President Clinton won
 over many Cuban-Americans in 1996 when he took 40 percent of the Hispanic
 vote in Miami-Dade.

 ''I voted for Clinton twice,'' Alexis Duran, 44, of Hialeah, said at the county
 elections department, where he went Monday to switch to the GOP, but found he
 already had. ''I'm not very happy with him now. I'm insulted.''

 Elections department clerk Carmen Bofill, one among many registration clerks,
 said that by 2 p.m. she had received about 100 calls from people wanting to
 switch parties. About 20, she said, actually stopped in to make the change in
 person.

 They offered a simple procedure: to mail in a voter-registration card with the
 change marked on the back, and sign it.

 That's what Miami lawyer Vicente Tome, 31, will do today.

 He's also writing President Clinton to explain why.

 ''I sympathize with the Democratic Party because I believe it stands for equality
 and the inclusion of minorities, said Tome. ''But after what happened over the
 weekend, I don't feel they represent me as a minority.

 The emotions also ran high at the desk where Mirta Escudero sits at the Latin
 Chamber of Commerce in Little Havana.

 On Monday, she estimated 60 people came through the office between 8:30 a.m.
 and 4:30 p.m. Most arrived after Radio Unica talk-show host Tomas Garcia-Fuste
 reminded Cuban-American Democrats that the chamber offered the service if they
 wanted to switch.

 ''My hand hurts from writing so much, Escudero said at day's end.

 Quisqueya Rodriguez, 64, took two buses to get from her home in Hialeah to the
 chamber office just west of downtown Miami at 12:20 p.m.

 ''Republican or independent? Escudero asked.

 ''Change me to whatever, Rodriguez said with a wave of her hand.

 ''But you have to tell me, Escudero said.

 ''Pick whatever, Rodriguez said.

 ''Do you like Bush's party? Escudero finally asked.

 ''Yes, that one, said Rodriguez, signing under under the line where Escudero had
 just printed ''Republican.

 Faustino Calzada, 59, of Westchester, went with his wife, Francisca, 45, and the
 voter card of their daughter Janet, 22.

 All three Democrats decided to become Republicans because of Elian.

 ''Totally Republican from this moment, Faustino Calzada said. ''And we're also
 going to help (New York City Mayor Rudy) Giuliani, too, with our money, so we
 can help him beat Mrs. Clinton.

 The Democratic Party, for its part, is undertaking a political damage assessment
 and examining how the party might start mending fences in Miami.

 ''That is going to be part of my agenda this week, to sort of figure out what we
 need to do there,'' Bob Poe, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, said
 Monday. ''We want to make sure we are building bridges and not tearing them
 down.''

 The seizure of Elian by armed federal agents is a serious setback for Gore in
 South Florida, said Neil Newhouse, a Washington-based pollster for Republicans.
 He said Texas Gov. George W. Bush, like Bush's father and Ronald Reagan
 before him, is poised to win a large majority of the influential Cuban-American vote
 in the aftermath of the Elian saga.

 The Elian issue has ''solidified the Cuban vote against the Clinton administration
 and Gore,'' Newhouse said. ''They might have hoped for one-third of the Cuban
 vote, but that's now unlikely. And it's another week closer to November.''

 Gore will continue campaigning in South Florida, promising frequent visits -- and
 reminding people, when asked, that he wanted Elian's fate settled in a family
 court and the family united peacefully.

 ''The vice president has made his views on Elian very clear. He has been out there
 for a while with his views,'' Chris Lehane, Gore's spokesman, said Monday.

 Herald staff writer Mark Silva contributed to this report.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald