BlogWood: MT Archives

Supervisors call for election reform

This is a great idea, one which I’ve often thought would be a very hard sell, but suddenly Florida’s Elections Supervisors are behind a plan to do away with election day and precincts and open large voting centers for one or two weeks, so that anyone can vote in that time period with quick lines and little inconvenience.

The veteran Supervisors like Ion Sancho are strongly in favor of this proposal. As long as safeguards are put into place to make sure that all areas and citizens of a county are fairly served (Duval County springs to mind), this opens the ballot to many poor and working people who find it difficult to take time off work on election day or to travel long distances to vote early. And it makes voting much more convenient for everyone.

Another plus, at least for those who believe that every vote should be counted, is the elimination of the state rule mandating that a provisional ballot be cast in the proper precinct for it to be counted. As a volunteer on election day, I can attest to the fact that the provisional ballot option was often used to pacify agitated or confused voters who had ended up in the wrong precinct and were unable or unwilling to travel to the correct location, even though the poll workers knew the ballot would never be counted.

More people voting? More ballots counted? I wonder how the Jeb! and his legislative confederates will react to this rather progressive idea brought to the table by a group of elected officials that may end up increasing turnout in 2006?

Florida's election supervisors, impressed by the success of early voting, proposed dramatic reforms Tuesday that would eliminate Election Day, replace it with an 11-day election season and do away with precincts.

The association of the state's 67 chief elections officials voted in concept at its annual winter meeting in Orlando to informally present the idea to the Legislature and to start rallying support for what its members concede would be a sea change in how Floridians vote.

''I think the voters spoke loud and clear in the general election of 2004 that they want other options than to be limited to 12 hours on a Tuesday to vote,'' said Bill Cowles, Orange County supervisor of elections and president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections. ``We should seize upon the opportunity in 2005 to make the changes so we can try it in 2006.''

This past election season marked the first time that Florida used early voting across the state and it was a proven success, as some voters waited in line for hours in order to cast their ballot ahead of Election Day.

Election supervisors say the experience showed them they could move away from the traditional Election Day and a precinct structure many believe is outdated. Instead of hundreds of precincts in a county, for example, voters could go to any of a few super-voting sites equipped with enough machines and personnel to keep lines at a minimum.

OUTDATED SYSTEM?

Florida wouldn't be the first state to move to eliminate Election Day. Voters in Oregon, for example, cast all ballots by mail.

''What we're basically telling the Legislature is the precinct system is an archaic system, which does not serve the intent of the voters very well,'' said Ion Sancho, Leon County elections supervisor. ``Requiring that you go to your precinct to vote is not unlike [Caesar] requiring everyone in the Roman Empire showing up in the town of birth so you could do a census.''

Cowles said supervisors weren't wed to a specific number of days, although 11 would cover at least two weekends. He also said the number of polling sites would be left up to individual counties.

Supervisors say the advantage of the proposal is that it could eliminate long-standing problems such as finding enough trained poll workers. It would eliminate the need to disqualify provisional ballots when someone votes in the wrong precinct.

''I'm all for it,'' said Kay Clem, who as Indian River supervisor of elections was forced to consolidate voting locations and open additional early voting sites after hurricanes damaged a quarter of all her polling places. ``It worked famously. I'm telling you, people loved it.''

Sancho, who said he proposed a similar idea two years ago, said the positive experience with early voters helped win over doubters this year.

''We know that we cannot continue in this direction,'' he said. The cost and complexity of technology has made it increasingly difficult to find and adequately train poll workers. Under this plan, poll workers could be better trained and hired for a longer period of time, he said.
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But supervisors may have to wage a convincing campaign to win support from legislators, who may be reluctant to enact major changes after the relatively problem-free elections this year.

''That's a pretty drastic change and something I know he would want the [House Ethics and Elections] committee to debate fully and get a lot of public input before rendering some kind of an opinion on it,'' said Towson Fraser, a spokesman for House Speaker Allan Bense.

Sen. Bill Posey, the Rockledge Republican who chairs the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, said the idea is ''out of the blue,'' but added he was ``open-minded about anything that makes the process better.''

One Fort Lauderdale Republican who sits on the House Ethics and Elections Committee said she was concerned that people would lose a polling place close to where they live and that lines would be long at super-polling sites.

''People like the convenience of going to their neighborhood church and schools and voting,'' said Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff. ``I'm from Broward County. We have over a million voters. What happens to the lines? With early voting, we had lines three hours long.''

Actually, I hate the “convenience” of going to a church to vote. A neighborhood school would be just fine, but a church? Happily, this proposal would probably move the polling places into larger buildings than most churches, so that little peeve of mine would be moot.

And all of the possible problems mentioned are very easily solved. With the exception of the Legislature.

Find Your Legislators and tell them what you think.