Reflections of a Poll Worker: The Ugly, the Bad and the Good

 

Yesterday was my trial by fire, also known as working for the first time at a polling place in Florida during a hotly contested mid-term election. Getting up at 4:30 am for a 6 am arrival isn’t fun, but I made sure I had some coffee before we opened the polls. I was one of six Book Inspectors who discovered the worst parts, the ugliest parts and the best parts of being a poll worker in Polk County, Florida. So what were my observations?

The Ugly Parts

Our Supervisor of Elections is a terrific woman and clearly dedicated to her job. But the system sucks. I won’t take you through the details of being a Book Inspector, but it was crazy to have four people lined up alphabetically in front of one Inspector while three other people waited to be helped. The polling room was too small, ballots had to be completed by hand, and the ballots were so long that the back-up just to enter a booth was ridiculous. But we had a dedicated population who hardly complained at all, at least to us, about the wait. I understand that serious, competent research must be done to upgrade the system, especially due to all the controversy in the last several years about balloting systems, and I hope improvements will be made in the next two years. This voter and poll worker will be writing to the Supervisor to find out more about their plans.

The Bad Parts

The technology was not the only thing that was ugly to watch. One of the other Book Inspectors told me that people were coming in with the same typed list of how to complete their ballots; these weren’t the sample ballots (thank goodness for those people who came prepared), but he seemed quite sure that an outside group had provided voters with their lists (and this fellow was not a Republican). It’s not illegal to provide lists to people ahead of time, but it’s not pretty either. There were also 14 confusing amendments (are there any amendments that are not confusing?); a number of them had several unrelated parts to them, so if the voter had not prepared in advance, they spent a very long time trying to figure out how to vote (unless they had their list). At the risk of sounding racist, I was very disappointed to see the number of people who requested ballots printed in Spanish. One of our poll workers wanted to be helpful by offering people with Hispanic surnames the choice of a Spanish-language ballot. When we ran out of Spanish ballots, she realized that might not be a great idea, and shifted to letting people ask if they needed one. I found myself especially irritated at the large number of people who clearly spoke little English, and those who clearly did speak English and wanted a ballot in Spanish. Fortunately, they were almost always polite.

Most people were very friendly and smiled, but I had several people who didn’t speak a word during the entire process. They handed us their identification cards, in some cases glared, signed in our books where we pointed, took back their IDs and when we thanked them for coming, they turned around without a word. I’m not saying this was an overwhelming number of voters at all, but their behavior stood out in sharp contrast to everyone else. We also had an extremely large number of spoiled ballots (voters make an error and want a new ballot), and that requires a time-consuming process to replace them. According to one of our Book Inspectors, she’d never seen so many spoiled ballots. I suspect that we had many new voters, and with the complexity of the ballot, none of us were surprised at the number.

The Good Parts

I wanted to end this post, though, with all the good parts of the poll worker experience. We saw people of all ages. Parents were discouraged from bringing children into the polling place due to the size of the room, but one mother wanted her four kids to see the entire process. We were all delighted to make an exception for her. We had lots of Hispanics with a minimum of two last names, some hyphenated, some not, and also two or three “first names.” They were extremely patient with us gringos (as were the four book inspectors who spoke Spanish) in helping us figure out how the names might be listed in our books. Sometimes a voter would lean over and point out his or her name on a page! I always told them I needed all the help I could get, and we laughed together. The young voters were a delight, and we made sure to embarrass the first-time voters by calling out “first-time voter!”, cheering and clapping and giving them a special pin.

Every poll worker helped the others. The camaraderie and assistance made the experience one of shared dedication for the election process, and even though we barely got breaks and ate on the run, we all covered for each other without complaint. Our Precinct Clerk couldn’t do enough to help us in doing our jobs; the Voter Information Specialists who were the troubleshooters (sharing one computer!) were masterful. And the Deputy Clerk and Voting Equipment Operator were both outstanding. They were all helpful and courteous to everyone, voters and workers alike.

I realize that everyone who voted came with their own unique assortment of reasons: angry against President Trump and Republicans; thrilled to have their say about the governance of our country; wanting to make a difference in America and the world. Whatever their worldview, they showed up. Whatever their reasons were yesterday, they wanted to be heard and make their own statements about, and to, this country.

It was a long, demanding day and asked a lot of the poll workers and voters alike.

I hope to serve again in two years.

Published in Elections
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 29 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Susan Quinn: One of the other Book Inspectors told me that people were coming in with the same typed list of how to complete their ballots; these weren’t the sample ballots (thank goodness for those people who came prepared), but he seemed quite sure that an outside group had provided voters with their lists (and this fellow was not a Republican).

    Susan,

    This is called a ground game. No, it’s not a 3,000 word essay in an august publication. It is the crudest kind of politics. Of course, with the Tea Party, we had a ground game of our own. Too bad we are so much better than actually having anything to do with this kind of thing. In fact, we are so much better than this kind of thing that we don’t need to win elections at all.

    Whoops.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #1
  2. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Thank goodness Florida has early voting – could you imagine if we didn’t?  Given the challenges you all faced, it’s good information for the leadership going forward, to expand the spaces and provide more workers and ballots.  I was surprised myself that there were so many unrelated issues paired up on the ballot – in fact I thought it was weird.  I commented upon leaving to a poll worker, what does off-shore drilling have to do with vaping in a building?  She said that’s how they get things passed…..  Can you find out about that process?  Good reporting from the trenches Susan – it was a good night for Florida!

    • #2
  3. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    In all the years I have voted in Maryland, the poll workers were unfailingly polite, helpful, civic-minded folks.  It is one of the best parts of the system.

    We had a statewide ballot question that passed 2-1 which will authorize the legislature to change the law to allow people to show up and register on election day.** There is a lot to do in some precincts just to accommodate provisional balloting for unregistered (and often suspect) voters.  The opportunities for a full fraud circus (and a lot of new work for poll workers) on election day will be exponential if the law is changed before the 2020 elections.

    ** With all referendum-type questions, if I have not studied or don’t fully understand the issue I ask myself “What would Ron Swanson do?”.  This one happened to be easy to reject and just as easy to predict the outcome.

    • #3
  4. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    ** With all referendum-type questions, if I have not studied or don’t fully understand the issue I ask myself “What would Ron Swanson do?”. This one happened to be easy to reject and just as easy to predict the outcome.

    I scan for words like “allow” or “empower” or “authorize” and reject them.

    Government can never hear the word “no” too often.

    • #4
  5. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    In all the years I have voted in Maryland, the poll workers were unfailingly polite, helpful, civic-minded folks. It is one of the best parts of the system.

    We had a statewide ballot question that passed 2-1 which will authorize the legislature to change the law to allow people to show up and register on election day.** There is a lot to do in some precincts just to accommodate provisional balloting for unregistered (and often suspect) voters. The opportunities for a full fraud circus (and a lot of new work for poll workers) on election day will be exponential if the law is changed before the 2020 elections.

    ** With all referendum-type questions, if I have not studied or don’t fully understand the issue I ask myself “What would Ron Swanson do?”. This one happened to be easy to reject and just as easy to predict the outcome.

    OldB,

    You know your Ron Swanson thing wasn’t a bad idea. On the Florida ballot with all the amendments, I simply read them quickly. One had four unrelated changes rolled into one. The first three were innocuous. The fourth one was the rat. I put my NO blackmark on it and kept moving.

    If there had been people registering to vote too, general chaos would have turned into a nightmare not to mention the likely fraud.

    Regards,

    Jim

     

    • #5
  6. Brian Clendinen Inactive
    Brian Clendinen
    @BrianClendinen

    Orange County Prints ballots with both English and Spanish on them. This the second election where the books are electronic. And all they do is scan your driver’s license. So no waiting in alphabetical order. yes all the booths were filled taken. The nice part is there was plenty of chairs and tables around you could fill your ballot at out on with a pen. So that’s a huge Advantage having paper ballots. What I always hate though is the nosey people when you’re getting your ballot scaned. They make you take it out of the folder. No I want to keep in the folder so you can’t see how I voted. 

    • #6
  7. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    James Gawron (View Comment):
    Too bad we are so much better than actually having anything to do with this kind of thing. In fact, we are so much better than this kind of thing that we don’t need to win elections at all.

    Just curious, @jamesgawron–would you be comfortable with Republicans promoting the development of lists for people to follow at the polls. Actually, how do you know they don’t? I frankly wouldn’t like it. And I’m not sure how much these “lists” influenced the elections, either. Would those people still have voted without the lists? If so, would they have voted everything with a D next to it? Unfortunately the biggest impact in FL may have been those amendments–I think almost all of them passed. Not a good thing.

    • #7
  8. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    We had a statewide ballot question that passed 2-1 which will authorize the legislature to change the law to allow people to show up and register on election day.**

    I am so tired of the fast-food mentality in this country, and the importance of giving people just what they want, whether or not it makes sense. We have our own nonsense in FL: I believe that instead of having to go through a formal process, all felons will now be able to vote. Not sure of that. I’ll double check.

    • #8
  9. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Brian Clendinen (View Comment):

    Orange County Prints ballots with both English and Spanish on them. This the second election where the books are electronic. And all they do is scan your driver’s license. So no waiting in alphabetical order. yes all the booths were filled taken. The nice part is there was plenty of chairs and tables around you could fill your ballot at out on with a pen. So that’s a huge Advantage having paper ballots. What I always hate though is the nosey people when you’re getting your ballot scanned. They make you take it out of the folder. No I want to keep in the folder so you can’t see how I voted.

    @brianclendinen, one of our Book Inspectors moved to Polk County from OC. She was stunned to see how far behind we were. And I don’t know if they’ll get her back if they don’t upgrade.

    • #9
  10. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    James Gawron (View Comment):
    Too bad we are so much better than actually having anything to do with this kind of thing. In fact, we are so much better than this kind of thing that we don’t need to win elections at all.

    Just curious, @jamesgawron–would you be comfortable with Republicans promoting the development of lists for people to follow at the polls. Actually, how do you know they don’t? I frankly wouldn’t like it. And I’m not sure how much these “lists” influenced the elections, either. Would those people still have voted without the lists? If so, would they have voted everything with a D next to it? Unfortunately the biggest impact in FL may have been those amendments–I think almost all of them passed. Not a good thing.

    Susan,

    I think the polls are an offensive place to approach people. Those out front with signs and the like are mostly just annoying. However, there would be no reason not to mail sample ballots with it clearly marked as the choices are endorsed by “X-group”. One could even put a little commentary along with each selection. In the privacy of one’s own home, one could either read it for what it’s worth or just throw it in the trash. I received in the last 3 weeks before the election, I’m not kidding, at least 20 8.5″x11″ postcards. These were mostly a repetitive negative ad campaign by a local Republican. He almost convinced me not to vote for him because the postcards were both stupid and annoyingly frequent. These were full color and I’m sure they cost a lot more than my sample ballot brochure idea.

    We need a local ground game. That is exactly what the Tea Party provided and that is why we took the House in 2010. Mitch’s gang won the Senate and Trump won the Presidency. I think that it is clear that only by having the help of everybody can we win. Those who hold themselves above this are deluding themselves and hurting the effort.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #10
  11. GLDIII Reagan
    GLDIII
    @GLDIII

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    In all the years I have voted in Maryland, the poll workers were unfailingly polite, helpful, civic-minded folks. It is one of the best parts of the system.

    We had a statewide ballot question that passed 2-1 which will authorize the legislature to change the law to allow people to show up and register on election day.** There is a lot to do in some precincts just to accommodate provisional balloting for unregistered (and often suspect) voters. The opportunities for a full fraud circus (and a lot of new work for poll workers) on election day will be exponential if the law is changed before the 2020 elections.

    ** With all referendum-type questions, if I have not studied or don’t fully understand the issue I ask myself “What would Ron Swanson do?”. This one happened to be easy to reject and just as easy to predict the outcome.

    I use to be a “Chief Election Judge” here in the state of Maryland. One of two since they want (require?) for bipartisan oversight and resolution to the operations of each polling precinct. I initially volunteered to be just a “Book Judge” (i.e. the person who looks up your name and determines your in the right place and which ballot you get for primaries). I unfortunately volunteered the year Maryland desired to go from the mechanical flip switch machines to the electronic touch screens. They since abandoned those for paper ballot scanners.

    I was immediately elevated to chief because these are the folks who also had to boot up the booking and voting machines and be technologically literate to handle “issues” which those computers had in abundance.  The work force that did this was very elderly and not computer friendly or trainable. I did this for six election cycles, and grew very tired that the democratic volunteers were clueless and the work load doing this stuff solo was not worth the $150 stipend. Plus I had to take a vacation day, unlike many of the Dems who got the day payed for by their employer plus the stipend (typically the state or local government. Typically it was a 14 to 16 hour day to set up, operate the poll, resolve “issues” correctly, tally the vote count between the sign in’s and the votes recorded, shut down, collect the data cards, and drive up to Glen Burnie tally center (no data was shipped over the internet) with the other Chief Judge. One year during the primaries it was snowing and took me over 90 minute for a nominal 20 minute trip.

    Give the fact that the Dems have other methods to swamp the voter counts from the bowels of Baltimore, Baltimore County and Prince George county. I just gave into the fact that this state is beyond redemption and gave up doing the good citizen thing.

    More power to you Susan, at least your state has some meaning on the national level.

    • #11
  12. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    GLDIII (View Comment):
    I use to be a “Chief Election Judge” here in the state of Maryland.

    Our Precinct Clerk (like your Chief) had to work a huge number of hours. (No one could leave until everything was finished and packed u, so we didn’t leave until 9:30 pm. Fortunately most of the people who were working had some idea of what needed to be done, and chipped in, and not everything needed to be on his shoulders. One of the Book Inspectors said that they couldn’t pay her enough to do that job. I tend to agree. Bless you for the time you put in, @gldiii!

    • #12
  13. OkieSailor Member
    OkieSailor
    @OkieSailor

    We are more than glad to show an ID to get a ballot. I think anyone who opposed requiring verification of identity to vote is highly suspect, either in favor of voter fraud or too stupid to be allowed out of doors. But the melanin enriched folks who glared at you had probably just been wrongly convinced that requiring identification is racist . It is sad that such obviously bad ideas can take hold through constant repetition on “news” shows   

    I have always found poll workers to be helpful and courteous.  Bless you for being willing to serve. I feel bad about grousing, only to Mrs. OS, about being given a regular point pen to completely fill in the squares with, that’s how we Mark our ballots. I thought a wide point pen would have been much better. Such a small thing compared to being able to cast asecret ballot!!

    • #13
  14. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    OkieSailor (View Comment):
    But the melanin enriched folks who glared at you had probably just been wrongly convinced that requiring identification is racist . It is sad that such obviously bad ideas can take hold through constant repetition on “news” shows

    Wow, @okiesailor. I didn’t think of that. I just read today about someone blaming voter suppression –I think it was in Georgia. I just thought their reactions might be because I was a little, old, blond white girl–er, woman.

    • #14
  15. John Seymour Member
    John Seymour
    @

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    You know your Ron Swanson thing wasn’t a bad idea. On the Florida ballot with all the amendments, I simply read them quickly. One had four unrelated changes rolled into one. The first three were innocuous. The fourth one was the rat. I put my NO blackmark on it and kept moving.

     

    Jim, I noticed the same issue on most of the amendments two or three issues with a “gee, sure we oughta help those folks” feel to them, and sucker punch issue expanding government thrown into the mix.  I haven’t noticed that in the past, so I wonder if it’s a new tactic by the progressives.  It worked, all but one of the ballot amendments passed.

    • #15
  16. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    John Seymour (View Comment):
    I haven’t noticed that in the past, so I wonder if it’s a new tactic by the progressives.

    John,

    More than likely. They don’t make arguments they just find new ways to manipulate you. We should point this stuff out as soon as we see it. If people have a little warning they’ll know what to do.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #16
  17. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    In all the years I have voted in Maryland, the poll workers were unfailingly polite, helpful, civic-minded folks. It is one of the best parts of the system.

    We had a statewide ballot question that passed 2-1 which will authorize the legislature to change the law to allow people to show up and register on election day.** There is a lot to do in some precincts just to accommodate provisional balloting for unregistered (and often suspect) voters. The opportunities for a full fraud circus (and a lot of new work for poll workers) on election day will be exponential if the law is changed before the 2020 elections.

    ** With all referendum-type questions, if I have not studied or don’t fully understand the issue I ask myself “What would Ron Swanson do?”. This one happened to be easy to reject and just as easy to predict the outcome.

    OldB,

    You know your Ron Swanson thing wasn’t a bad idea. On the Florida ballot with all the amendments, I simply read them quickly. One had four unrelated changes rolled into one. The first three were innocuous. The fourth one was the rat. I put my NO blackmark on it and kept moving.

    If there had been people registering to vote too, general chaos would have turned into a nightmare not to mention the likely fraud.

    Regards,

    Jim

    Propositions are a lot like life; if they’re offering you candy, you probably shouldn’t get in the van. 

    • #17
  18. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    John Seymour (View Comment):

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    You know your Ron Swanson thing wasn’t a bad idea. On the Florida ballot with all the amendments, I simply read them quickly. One had four unrelated changes rolled into one. The first three were innocuous. The fourth one was the rat. I put my NO blackmark on it and kept moving.

     

    Jim, I noticed the same issue on most of the amendments two or three issues with a “gee, sure we oughta help those folks” feel to them, and sucker punch issue expanding government thrown into the mix. I haven’t noticed that in the past, so I wonder if it’s a new tactic by the progressives. It worked, all but one of the ballot amendments passed.

    The only way to sell a [redacted] sandwich is with quality bread and appealing condiments. 

    • #18
  19. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    @robtgilsdorf, you’re really good at those metaphors! I hadn’t noticed that much before!

    • #19
  20. HeartofFLA Inactive
    HeartofFLA
    @HeartofAmerica

    First of all, thanks for volunteering to work the polls. It’s a thankless job, especially during years with large ballots (as it was this year in FL).

    Our experience in Lake county FL was flawless. We utilized (and highly enjoyed) the ability to vote early. Sorry to say that Missouri has not adopted this ability so we embraced it once we moved here. It’s my understanding that the vote early period was very busy in our area. It must have been because the people I talked to yesterday who actually voted Tuesday experienced fewer people at the polls than I imagined.

    I don’t recall having to sign an actual book but rather an iPad, given a ballot number and a volunteer showed me how my ballot all matched up  with my assigned number. Pretty slick.

    As for the ruined ballot…I actually saw a Democrat candidate for state senate ruin his ballot and he had to request a new one. His wife was admonished for trying to take photos inside the polling place. Happy to report that he lost his race. It was a long shot anyway as Lake county is decidedly Republican.

    It was a long night and given that Nelson is demanding a recount, heaven knows if the Scott/Nelson race is actually finished. Time to move on Nelson, time to move on.

    As for the DeSantis/Gillum race…so thankful that Gillum did not prevail. But the time is coming and probably sooner than we would like that many offices in FL will go blue. I’ve never heard people talk about moving out of state before due to a possible outcome of a race but I sure did this time.

    Maybe if FL does go blue in the near future, we might move back to MO. After all, the mighty Claire McCaskill was toppled last night by Josh Howley.  Things are kind of looking up there.

    • #20
  21. HeartofFLA Inactive
    HeartofFLA
    @HeartofAmerica

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Thank goodness Florida has early voting – could you imagine if we didn’t? Given the challenges you all faced, it’s good information for the leadership going forward, to expand the spaces and provide more workers and ballots. I was surprised myself that there were so many unrelated issues paired up on the ballot – in fact I thought it was weird. I commented upon leaving to a poll worker, what does off-shore drilling have to do with vaping in a building? She said that’s how they get things passed….. Can you find out about that process? Good reporting from the trenches Susan – it was a good night for Florida!

    We were discussing the “combo amendment” last night at dinner. We were told by a long-time FL lawyer that it’s actually against FL law to have more than one item in an amendment. So not sure how or why it appeared to be allowed for this election.

    • #21
  22. HeartofFLA Inactive
    HeartofFLA
    @HeartofAmerica

    Brian Clendinen (View Comment):

    Orange County Prints ballots with both English and Spanish on them. This the second election where the books are electronic. And all they do is scan your driver’s license. So no waiting in alphabetical order. yes all the booths were filled taken. The nice part is there was plenty of chairs and tables around you could fill your ballot at out on with a pen. So that’s a huge Advantage having paper ballots. What I always hate though is the nosey people when you’re getting your ballot scaned. They make you take it out of the folder. No I want to keep in the folder so you can’t see how I voted.

    Sounds similar to Lake county. Ballots are printed directly for the voter. No stack sitting waiting to be handed out. Scan the drivers license, sign an iPad, and handed a personal ballot with my personal voter number. Love paper ballots.

    • #22
  23. Douglas Baringer Inactive
    Douglas Baringer
    @DudleyDoright49

    @Susan Quinn – First off I want to thank you for your service in what is many times a frustrating and tedious job.  I too had to get up at 4:30 yesterday and worked at the polling place in a very small Oklahoma town.  We had a very busy day, as I imagine everyone did.  We also had the pleasure of some visitors from Washington, DC.  They were as a whole pleasant and easy to get along with, but they seemed to marvel at the fact that we could recognize almost everyone who came in and could greet them by name.  This one fellow seemed to think that was a problem. I have no idea why.  

    All in all it was a very good day, with a very high percentage of participation.  BTW all of our ballots are printed in English and Spanish.  

    • #23
  24. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Douglas Baringer (View Comment):

    @Susan Quinn – First off I want to thank you for your service in what is many times a frustrating and tedious job. I too had to get up at 4:30 yesterday and worked at the polling place in a very small Oklahoma town. We had a very busy day, as I imagine everyone did. We also had the pleasure of some visitors from Washington, DC. They were as a whole pleasant and easy to get along with, but they seemed to marvel at the fact that we could recognize almost everyone who came in and could greet them by name. This one fellow seemed to think that was a problem. I have no idea why.

    All in all it was a very good day, with a very high percentage of participation. BTW all of our ballots are printed in English and Spanish.

    Sounds like a great day!  I think that you knew almost everyone must have been highly suspicious! Polk County is huge and I wasn’t in my neighborhood polling place. That would have been nice. 

     

    • #24
  25. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Douglas Baringer (View Comment):

    @Susan Quinn – First off I want to thank you for your service in what is many times a frustrating and tedious job. I too had to get up at 4:30 yesterday and worked at the polling place in a very small Oklahoma town. We had a very busy day, as I imagine everyone did. We also had the pleasure of some visitors from Washington, DC. They were as a whole pleasant and easy to get along with, but they seemed to marvel at the fact that we could recognize almost everyone who came in and could greet them by name. This one fellow seemed to think that was a problem. I have no idea why.

    All in all it was a very good day, with a very high percentage of participation. BTW all of our ballots are printed in English and Spanish.

    This is/was why we didn’t require ID. Polling places used to be all small town and everyone knew everyone by sight and name. And address. 

    Big cities need to require ID. 

    • #25
  26. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    James Gawron (View Comment):
    Too bad we are so much better than actually having anything to do with this kind of thing. In fact, we are so much better than this kind of thing that we don’t need to win elections at all.

    Just curious, @jamesgawron–would you be comfortable with Republicans promoting the development of lists for people to follow at the polls. Actually, how do you know they don’t? I frankly wouldn’t like it. And I’m not sure how much these “lists” influenced the elections, either. Would those people still have voted without the lists? If so, would they have voted everything with a D next to it? Unfortunately the biggest impact in FL may have been those amendments–I think almost all of them passed. Not a good thing.

    I would be comfortable on the week SoE sends out the sample ballots, canvassers (educated on pros and cons) offer to sit with potential voters and help them fill their sample ballot. That way they can ask questions and get answers from someone a bit more knowledgeable.

    Some Dems here were doing a good job informing people on the ballot initiatives.

    If you actually research the ammendments, most newspapers recommend rejecting all ammendments that bundle issues. I voted no on all the bundled ones – especially that vaping one.

    While offshore drilling makes little sense given fl beaches and tourism, lumping vaping with that was obscene.

    • #26
  27. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    James Gawron (View Comment):
    However, there would be no reason not to mail sample ballots with it clearly marked as the choices are endorsed by “X-group”. One could even put a little commentary along with each selection. In the privacy of one’s own home, one could either read it for what it’s worth or just throw it in the trash.

    I love this.

    • #27
  28. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    I found out that the amendment passed in Florida to allow felons to vote excludes those who committed murder or sexual assault. It still leaves some questions for me . . .

    • #28
  29. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    I found out that the amendment passed in Florida to allow felons to vote excludes those who committed murder or sexual assault. It still leaves some questions for me . . .

    Surely thieves are especially qualified to determine who would be the best congressman. 

    • #29
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.