Early Voting & You

I had forgotten to mention in some of my recent postings that I had followed my own advice and voted in the upcoming election last Wednesday. Again, I can't say enough how easy it is. I showed up at the polling center and was second in line, took about five minutes to have my information verified and get my ballot and about another five minutes to vote. Luckily, I got in there just before a bus full of senior citizens from a local retirement home began lining up.

Anyways, one thing that I've been hearing a lot about in discussions about the touch-screen voting machines is the prospect of "undervoting". This occurs when a choice is not made in a particular race, either by accident or on purpose. The fear is that people who inadvertantly skip over a particular race won't realize it and won't have the opportunity to go back and make a choice. Well, here in Pinellas County, our race for county sheriff is underwhelming to say the least. It's between Republican candidate Jim Coats, who used a county cable-access show on the role of the Sheriff's Department for his own good (while not inappropriate as he didn't promote his campaign, it's not necessarily fair to a challenger who doesn't have the same priviledge), and Democratic candidate Bubba Clem. If the name enough isn't a reason not to vote for him, he's probably better known as former radio shock-jock Bubba the Love Sponge who was thrown off of local station 98 Rock after station owner ClearChannel was fined $755,000 for material broadcast on his show. Anyways, between these two upstanding individuals it was too tough to make a choice, so I decided to vote for neither (too bad the machines don't allow for write-ins or else I would have put my perennial candidate, Peter Parker -- aka Spider-Man). So, I just move on and complete the rest of my ballot. When you're done, it takes you to a confirmation screen so you can double-check your selections. There in bold red was a box marking the sheriff's race as "NO SELECTION MADE". Since I already knew that, I clicked to submit my ballot where another big box popped on the screen saying "YOU HAVE NOT SELECTED A CHOICE FOR ALL POSITIONS", then stated that I had left the sheriff's election blank and allowed me to hit a button to go back to it. So, needless to say, I think the issue of "undervoting" isn't an issue at all. Just a matter of reading all of the available information the screens provide.

Random Thoughts for Florida Voters

• One thing that wasn't on my sample ballot that I got online from my local elections office (it was on the one I received in the mail) were the state supreme court and appeals court judges that are up for review. In my case, as a Liberal in a state with a conservative Republican governor and legislature, even if I disapproved of the actions of a particular judge he probably would have been replaced with another judge I disagreed with. So it probably didn't matter to me, but if you want to take the time to review the actions of particular judges I strongly encourage it.
• On my way to Orlando on Friday afternoon, I was able to listen to the WMNF show Critical Times where they were speaking with the president of the League of Pissed-Off Voters. While he was kinda out there (each time the announcer said his name, he would let out this "WHOOMP-POW!!!" sound), his and his organization's mission seems noble enough. On their website IndyVoter.org, they have voter's guides written by progressive (i.e. Liberal; no shame in the term for me) activists for communities throughout the country. So, if you care enough to want to know more about candidate running for local office, but don't want to do the research yourself, definitely see if a voter's guide is available for your area.