Casting a ballot in Florida

A few weeks after the Republican Convention, I got a letter from the McCain Campaign asking for a donation. Once I saw that, I put the letter and its enclosures into the recycling pile. A couple weeks later, I heard someone else got the same letter. He took the time, even though he was a Democrat, to look through the papers and discovered the letter informed him he was a registered Republican, including an elections' office registration number. A call to the office cleared up the matter quickly but it was confusing for him for awhile.

That was not a nice passage through which to go to get to vote.

To vote in Florida, you may be automatically registered when you get a driver's license. -- I'm not positive because there is also the requirement that registration must be at least 29 days before the election. --

That's the easy part, presuming you can afford to drive a car regularly.

Finding the polling place may be a project. Sites are changed for many reasons and can be changed any time. Our poll is in its third home in three years. In addition, the addresses used to identify the polling places come from phone directories and lists that were made up before Hurricane Charlie four years ago.

At the polling site, upon getting to the first table, the voter need only present a driver's license. Those that have none may bring their passport or something like a credit card with the voter's picture and signature on it. Without something with a pic and signature, the person may do a provisional ballot which is not counted until the ID has been checked. We encourage that voter then to contact the supervisor of elections office frequently over the next two days until that is resolved. The office is supposed to handle provisional ballots within 48 hours.

Even in our small precinct with adequate booths and two counting machines, we frequently had someone sitting on the side filling out something or waiting while the clerk was on the phone. Other voters could see the disruption the person was involved in.

The voters with the needed pic and signature is next asked to confirm their address. It should be the same in the book we have and on the license. If it is, then the voter signs the book, fills in a small oval like the one on the ballot, and then signs a signature slip (about 2" x 8-1/2").

If the addresses differ, the voter is given a change of address form and is sent to the clerk to verify with the elections office the change of address. The office checks to see if that address exists and is the same as their most recent address information. That usually clears the matter and the voter then proceeds.

We had a case where a brand new house in a section previously undeveloped was not anywhere in the records at the office. That man got a provisional ballot until his location could be verified with another county office.

The voter then goes to the "next" table. There, the white signature slip is taken and a tag torn off the bottom of the ballot which includes the ballot number. That tag is then stapled to the signature slip and kept to verify the count (and could be used to trace the ballot if someone wanted to know how that person voted).

The ballot is then given to the voter with basic instructions about filling in the ovals next to the ones they are voting for.

The voter then goes to the next open booth to fill out the ballot using pens provided in each booth.

Besides filling in ovals for candidates for the various national, state, and local offices, the voters face "yes or no" votes on a half dozen sitting judges' effectiveness in office.

The hardest part of the ballot is the constitutional amendments everyone is asked to vote on. The ballot print is small, the light by which to read them is 25 watts about two feet from the ballot, and the amendment is summarized. This time there were seven. Six were obsurely worded about property and tax policies the legislature wanted the voters to decide about and one which glorified marriage as possible only between a man and a woman without saying it would abrogate rights already in Florida law for other kinds of partners (not just homosexual).

Many people had studied on the amendments and came with sample ballots from the newspapers to aid them in their filling out the ballot. Those who had not prepared but wanted to try to be conscientious took the time to try to figure out what those amendments meant. Those folks took up to a half hour.

Once a ballot was completed, it was taken to the poll workers who showed how to insert the ballots into the counting machines. It was no problem for most to go through (we only had two clog but clear after only a couple minutes of unlocking and opening various gates to the innards of the machine). The voters were then given a sticker saying they had voted and were sent on their way with thanks for coming.

Those with stickers could go to several fast food places to get a sandwich or drink or other benefit offered to encourage voting.

If I wanted to discourage people from voting, the first thing I would do would be to put at least a half dozen obscurely worded amendments to the constitution on issues that most people had no notion about. Being expected to sort that all out before comng to the polls is bad enough. Having to wait for others who had not prepared is really bad! While the tactic looks legitimate, it is really discouraging.

Another tactic is to make sure that the equipment is barely adequate so that things like poor lighting or paper clogging can happen easily without looking like a set up.

The third tactic I'd use would be to change the poll sites frequently in those precincts I wanted to discourage. I would say it was to use free facilities even if those facilities were built for elementary school children with few if any adult-sized chairs and tables. Hopefully, the new site would be a long walk inside a large building. That would seem like good use of county-owned resources even though it would be uncomfortable for many people, especially the differently-abled and elderly.

Then I'd make sure the addresses were not right. That would look like incompetence but not intentional voter suppression.

I'd then make sure that the person coming to vote could not use the voter registration card sent out a month or so before the election but had to use something the voter might not have. Not many poor people have passports or credit cards with their pictures on them. Not all of them have driver's licenses.

Then I'd have everyone have to sign twice and go find another table to get a ballot.

This kind of thing is Katherine Harris' dream-come-true.

And it is how we operate here in Charlotte County, Florida.