General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFor any Florida residents: A serious question about the ballot:
This year, we know the ballot has been made into a mini-book, the early vote has been shortened in time, and my husband and I have opted to vote by mail.
The biggest problem I have with these ballots are in "non-partisan" races (mainly for Judges) and in deciding how to vote on the amendments. The amendments have always been written as a word salad, even when they were only a paragraph long entry, so as to confuse voters from knowing if they were voting for or against their own best interests.... This year they are multiple paragraphs and contain legal jargon. It's even more confusing than normal.
Does anyone have a helpful website or knowledge of a helping hand to vote in the best interest of the people or in a (Dem favorable manor with the non-partisan races)?
Honestly, this has got to be the most in your face voter suppression tactics on an all out onslaught from every side. The Governor tries pulling registered voters off of rolls in a massive purge, the length of the early vote was shortened, Republican registration firms have been caught at all kinds of shady practices such as only registering Republicans, to destroying Democratic registrations, to dumping fraudulent registration forms onto county election offices, and on top of that, they created a ballot that is long and confusing and will take the avg voter more time to sort through... Making it frustrating for the voter and the wait times longer at the polling place (plus the places that are heavily dem areas or in college areas will end up having limited scan devices and guaranteed, the scan devices will fail or break at these areas, making the process even slower.... Plus the fact that the opti-scan doesn't print out a receipt that the votes one has cast we're properly read; even though, we are voting on paper.
Anyway, is there any place to go that has some real help on making informed decisions and then allowing me to help others to find their way to these sites (if people have their sample ballot marked as they wish to vote before they get to polling places, it will make filling in the bubbles much easier.
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gkhouston
(21,642 posts)glowing
(12,233 posts)Any idea about judges? A place to go regarding the non-partisan races that "Dems" support? I know it's kind of tricky to do this since it is non-partisan. I'm inPalm Harbor, FL.
Basically, what I fill out in the other races, my husband will follow suit because he knows I try to find and make informed decisions. The other races that say (Dem) are really easy for him to figure out.
gkhouston
(21,642 posts)Sometimes the judges' answers to questions posed by the LWV make me say, "Oh, hell no".
radical noodle
(8,000 posts)So I would suggest opposing those. I'm moving to Florida in a couple of weeks, and helped a friend try to decipher 8. The real agenda in 8 is giving tax money to religious institutions.
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121015/NEWS04/210150331
http://staugustine.com/opinions/2012-10-13/guest-column-amendment-8-dagger-heart-public-education#.UHxqlMXA_6I
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/dont-be-fooled-by-floridas-amendment-8/1255243
I would suggest looking up the different issues and see who is for and against. Good luck, they don't make it easy.
glowing
(12,233 posts)steuck down before getting on a ballot... Jeb Bush has tried pushing for this for years, whether in office or out, and it's normally taken off the ballot due to the seperation of church and state in our US constitution.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)NO on all the amendments.
YES on all the Judges.
The proposed amendments were all written by the republican legislature. You can read through them, but rest assured they aren't good.
The issue of merit retention for the judges is political payback. The Judges nixed a couple of legislature-written amendments in the last election. This is Dean Cannon's payback. The merit retention policy is intended to remove politics from the appointment and retention of judges. They have committed no breach of duty or ethics, thus deserve to be retained.
glowing
(12,233 posts)my Facebook friends... We don't want the Gov to pick more right wing judges.
Baitball Blogger
(46,720 posts)Here's a link to the thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021494270
onethatcares
(16,168 posts)if it takes more than 4 sentences to make sense of what the amendment is, it's a turd and doesn't
do a thing for the citizenry.
Vote no on all of them, the florida legislature wrote them all and you know those turnip heads are bought and
paid for.
Retain the three superior court justices though.
glowing
(12,233 posts)in. Waiting for my husband to bubble up.. Then I'll probably walk it into one of the pick up sites. Postage on this bad boy is 65 cents because its so damned big.
quaker bill
(8,224 posts)in the FL legislature. Not a single one is a citizen initiative. This tells me all I need to hear.
mia
(8,361 posts)Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith of Alachua said last week the party will not take a formal position on retention -- but only because he does not want to politicize the issue. Smith, a lawyer and former state attorney, said he will speak out vigorously in favor of keeping the justices and warned that the campaign against them is a dangerous partisan effort to give the GOP control of all three branches of government.
http://www.thefloridacurrent.com/article.cfm?id=29765025
