It’s Election Day — the last chance voters will have to make their voices count in 2022. By this time tomorrow, we’ll know a lot more about what Florida and local politics will look like for the next two years, though with a tropical storm on the way, we might also be a little distracted.
There’s so much at stake: A historic gubernatorial election that may be one of the highest-stakes contests in Florida history because of the consistent (and convincing) speculation that Gov. Ron DeSantis has his eyes set on a bigger prize. The balance of power in Congress, which could turn on the outcome of several Florida races. Ditto for the state Legislature and Florida Cabinet, though it would be indeed surprising if Republicans lose control there.
Add the dozens of races for city and county positions, along with a more heated than usual fight over the fate of the Florida Supreme Court and the appellate court that serves Central Florida.
And then there’s democracy itself: We’ve seen distressing signs that current Republican leadership thinks it’s just too darn easy to vote in Florida, and they aim to fix that — by breaking down avenues that people use to make their voices heard.
It’s a good thing, then, that nearly a third of local voters have already made sure their voices count. We’ve been yelling our heads off for the past week about the need for Central Floridians to grab the opportunity to cast their ballots early in the midterm elections. And many more local voters have done so, with most counties in the region showing turnout of around 30 percent between early voting and vote by mail.
It’s not overwhelming, but it’s better than local officials expected when elections supervisors gathered in Orlando last week to sound the alarm about record low turnout. (Osceola supervisor Mary Jane Arrington, who warned about a potential storm as “one of those things that comes up,” looks particularly prescient in hindsight.)
“We did pick up significantly but in order to reach a 60% turnout, we need almost 85,000 voters tomorrow,” Lake County Supervisor Alan Hays said Monday. “I hope they do come, but I’m not counting on it.”
For those who have yet to cast their ballot, today is the last chance. Election Day voting will be taking place today from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at hundreds of local precincts across the region. It’s a good idea for voters to check their local supervisor’s website to make sure they end up at the right place, since many will be also worried about re-battening the hatches they just unbattened, in anticipation of Tropical Storm (or possibly Hurricane) Nicole.
We are, at this point, all yelled out. The phrase “last chance” pretty much says it all. Tend to your own safety and that of your family first, but if you can make it to the polls, please do.
Fix broken verification system
We have learned of one last-minute maneuver that illustrates what might be at stake.
As returned mail ballots poured into their offices two weeks ago, Florida election supervisors got something else in the mail: a letter from the notorious state Office of Election Crimes and Security in Tallahassee. The subject: “Felons,” it said.
The state called on supervisors to take “all of the necessary measures” to prevent certain ineligible people with felony convictions from voting, including those still on probation and not protected by Amendment 4, which restored the right to vote to most ex-felons four years ago.
The letter said it was a follow-up to previous state shipments of documents questioning the eligibility of some voters and urged supervisors to begin the process of formally challenging those voters’ eligibility. It was signed by Scott Strauss, who became director of the security office following the death on Sept. 23 of former director Peter Antonacci.
Let us be clear: No ineligible voter should vote. But by waiting until two weeks before an election to act, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration sowed more confusion and uncertainty, on the heels of an elaborately staged and legally suspect roundup of voters, most of them Black, who were accused of voting illegally. As the letter noted, due process protections necessarily make challenging a voter’s eligibility complicated and time-consuming, as it should be.
This last-minute October surprise smacks of voter intimidation and is yet another glaring example of a broken voter verification system. A top priority for the Florida Legislature in 2023 should be passing a law and providing money for a central database to track the eligibility of each voter — not pressuring counties to remove voters from the rolls two weeks before an election.
The front end is ‘broken’
“The front end of the system is broken,” said Neil Volz, deputy director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which led the Amendment 4 campaign. “This appears to be a last-minute effort to deal with voter verification, something that should have been done on the front end a long time ago.”
Voting rights groups have made public records requests for “challenge letters” in all 67 counties. They received more than 1,900 such letters from the first 12 counties that responded (Broward and Palm Beach were not among them).
Voters who are challenged should call the coalition at 877-MYVOTE-0, or the national election protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE.
Common Cause Florida said the state needs to create a verification system “instead of playing a game of ‘gotcha’ with the lives of vulnerable Floridians.”
We agree. A felon who still owes a fine or restitution from decades ago may not be aware of that, and navigating the maze of the justice system is a virtual impossibility. The Office of Election Crimes and Security increasingly looks like the Office of Voter Disenfranchisement.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and Anderson. Contact us with your post-election thoughts at insight@orlandosentinel.com.
