Observations of a crazy night
Election night is behind us and we found some interesting points to ponder before we go through this again in four years.
Concerns about write-in candidates, early voting, absentee ballots, and Constitutional amendments should be on everyone's mind during the upcoming legislative session in Tallahassee.
Write-in candidates are often little more than a way to limit who can vote in the open primary system.
Prime examples of this are the recent District 1 County Commission race in Santa Rosa County, District 3 State Representative race, and the District 2 State Senator Race.
Do the names Woodrow Charles Miller, Joshua W. Hartigan, or Margaret "Peggi" Smith sound familiar?
These were write-in candidates on Tuesday's ballot.
Miller withdrew after the primary was won by Jim Williamson this past August. With Miller a candidate, what would have been an open primary was closed to only Republican voters, thus eliminating some 48,000 possible voters.
The same thing can be said for Hartigan and Smith.
Registering a name so a single party decides our future is a mockery of the process and makes one wonder who was actually behind it all.
While a write-in candidate is a pain so are some of the comments about early voting.
Listening to people talk, 96 hours over eight days was not enough time to early vote.
Questions about why wasn't there one more day have crept up and then there were questions about the lines.
Well if someone really and truly wanted to vote it would not have been an issue, but no matter how many hours you give someone will always want more time.
Another reason for the long lines … people show up without educating themselves on the amendments. They end up trying to do this as they vote and it adds extra time to those waiting their turn.
Our next rambling question is “what is truly an absentee ballot?”
This should be for those who cannot otherwise get out and vote. Otherwise, let us all vote this way and there will be no lines. We say absentee ballots should be for those who will be out of town on Election Day, such as a college student, military personnel member and the like.
We saw able-bodied people walk into the elections office on Election Day to drop off their absentee ballot. If they can walk in a ballot, they can vote by regular methods.
About those Constitutional Amendments … Florida has to be the second most stupid state after California.
These amendments are written in such a way that, before things are over, you don't know which end is up or what those who are proposing the ballot issue are really trying to do.
The masters of spin and misinformation, who want these amendments on the ballot, should have to say everything in as few as words as possible to simply and clearly portray their thoughts and meaning.
Despite all the propaganda efforts there were several who didn't vote on these measures because they couldn't understand them and if they did try, they were the reason for the long lines and delays at the polls and during early voting.
It is hard to say what was more disheartening about the election, all the negative campaigning or all the issues you encountered while voting.
This isn't rocket science, but then again we are not the ones trying to protect our jobs and future pensions.
Maybe the system needs to be fixed, but unfortunately, it’s the best we have going so far.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Our View – Nov. 10, 2012