Tired of Florida Voting Debacles

Too many pages

In Miami-Dade the ballot was ten sides (five pages) long. There was a 851,645 person turnout in Miami-Dade. So... early voting notwithstanding, they had to scan 8,516,450 sides. Even if it scans both sides at the same time... we're talking millions of pages being scanned in one night. And the county actually has "more than 1.2 million registered voters… and as many as 829 precincts on Election Day." It's just an insane amount of scanning for one night. The Miami-Date Election Supervisor's office reports that in one of the precincts, the last vote was cast at 1:30 am. I believe this ballot debacle is the reason.

Well, get ready, because it's about to get worse. What they had in Florida last night was just the ballot summary. Starting in 2013, the entire text of the amendment may be on the ballot.

Here is the relevant text of Florida Election Law:

101.56075 Voting methods (4) "By December 31, 2013, all voting systems utilized by voters during a state election shall permit placement on the ballot of the full text of a constitutional amendment or revision containing stricken or underlined text."

101.161 Referenda; ballots (3)(a) Each joint resolution that proposes a constitutional amendment or revision shall include one or more ballot statements set forth in order of priority. Each ballot statement shall consist of a ballot title, by which the measure is commonly referred to or spoken of, not exceeding 15 words in length, and either a ballot summary that describes the chief purpose of the amendment or revision in clear and unambiguous language, or the full text of the amendment or revision. The Department of State shall furnish a designating number pursuant to subsection (2) and the appropriate ballot statement to the supervisor of elections of each county. The ballot statement shall be printed on the ballot after the list of candidates, followed by the word "yes" and also by the word "no," and shall be styled in such a manner that a "yes" vote will indicate approval of the amendment or revision and a "no" vote will indicate rejection.

(b)1. Any action for a judicial determination that one or more ballot statements embodied in a joint resolution are defective must be commenced by filing a complaint or petition with the appropriate court within 30 days after the joint resolution is filed with the Secretary of State. The complaint or petition shall assert all grounds for challenge to each ballot statement. Any ground not asserted within 30 days after the joint resolution is filed with the Secretary of State is waived.

2. The court, including any appellate court, shall accord an action described in subparagraph 1. priority over other pending cases and render a decision as expeditiously as possible. If the court finds that all ballot statements embodied in a joint resolution are defective and further appeals are declined, abandoned, or exhausted, unless otherwise provided in the joint resolution, the Attorney General shall, within 10 days, prepare and submit to the Department of State a revised ballot title or ballot summary that corrects the deficiencies identified by the court, and the Department of State shall furnish a designating number and the revised ballot title or ballot summary to the supervisor of elections of each county for placement on the ballot. The court shall retain jurisdiction over challenges to a revised ballot title or ballot summary prepared by the Attorney General, and any challenge to a revised ballot title or ballot summary must be filed within 10 days after a revised ballot title or ballot summary is submitted to the Department of State.

3. A ballot statement that consists of the full text of an amendment or revision shall be presumed to be a clear and unambiguous statement of the substance and effect of the amendment or revision, providing fair notice to the electors of the content of the amendment or revision and sufficiently advising electors of the issue upon which they are to vote.

Contact for further information: Florida Division of Elections Office (850) 245-6200, press 4 for director's office

Polyglot Ballot

Voters in Miami-Dade were also treated to a three-language polyglot ballot (in English, Spanish and Creole). While I have no objection to having alternative language ballots available, was it really necessary to put all three languages on every page of the ballot? Could there not have been an alternative-language ballot? How about separating the language sections so that not ALL pages had to be scanned? According to the Florida Department of State, that decision came straight from the Miami-Dade County Chief Deputy Supervisor of Elections Penelope Townsley, appointed by the Miami city manager.

Citizen's Initiative

We should be working on reforming these issues NOW, not in 2014. As I understand it, that would have to happen by citizen's initiative petition, which looks like a pretty involved process. And are there any initiatives happening now to return the Secretary of State to an elected position? I'm tired of seeing Florida screw up elections.