Voter Political Blog

“I don’t have time to complain about the rules,” a harried county election worker snapped back. “I just follow them.”

Early voting across Florida is bringing record turnouts. But it’s also exposed, as the Miami Herald points out today, how Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature two years ago “made it harder, not easier, for Floridians to vote.”

The legislature mandated a cut-back in early-voting hours and limited the number of early voting polling places a local election supervisor can establish. Supposedly, the legislature acted “to save money.” As a result, now, there are only four early voting locations in Escambia County and just two in Santa Rosa County.

Supervisor of Elections Main Office
213 Palafox Place, 2nd floor
Pensacola (downtown)

Supervisor of Elections Branch office
292 Muscogee Road
Cantonment

Lucia M. Tryon Branch Library
5740 North 9th Avenue
Pensacola

Southwest Branch Library
12248 Gulf Beach Highway

The Elections Office
6495 Caroline St, Suite “F”
Milton

South Service Center
5841 Hwy 98
Gulf Breeze

All locations will be open today (Sunday) from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm. Tomorrow (Monday through Saturday, early voting locations in the two counties will be open from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.

The scant locations and limited hours are causing long lines in both counties. While we were standing in line over an hour yesterday, we overheard another voter complaining about the long wait, the abbreviated hours, and the gas it took to drive to the distant early voting polling place.

“Can’t you do something about this?” he demanded.

“I don’t have time to complain about the rules,” a harried county election worker snapped back. “I just follow them.”

Elsewhere in Florida, it’s a “nightmare”, as Mike Madden reports for Salon.com. Still, early voting as allowed in some 32 states is bringing record turn-outs, according to the Los Angeles Times. One million have already voted in North Carolina and over 900,000 in Georgia. That’s “double the pace” in both states compared with the 2004 election, AFP News service reports.

In Oregon, which blazed the trail in the 1980’s with its innovative vote-by-mail system, state officials reported 281,781 returned ballots as of October 23.

Interestingly, Oregon’s experience with mail-in ballots has led to a substantial reduction in annual election expenses. While “counties have seen their post costs increase… the overall cost of running a mail election is far lower than a poll election.” For example, in the largest county in the state:

At one time, Multnomah County had 2,000 people working at hundreds of polling places. This election, there will be 200 to 300 people working at a single office, said elections director Tim Scott.

Moreover, voter turn-out in Oregon has been around 80 percent of all eligible voters, an order of magnitude or two greater than the best participation rates in the other 49 states.

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Did the Florida legislature’s sudden interest in saving money on elections have more to do with voter suppression and its fundamental distrust of democracy than with economic efficiency?

Source: http://pbrla.blogspot.com/2008/10/early-voting-florida-snaufs.html

Like John McCain, Barack Obama has used robocalls as a means of advancing his presidential ambitions. Usually, however, the Democratic nominee’s spots are more positive in nature or simply designed to push back against McCain’s efforts.

Voters in Virginia are now receiving one such call delivered by Michelle Obama urging them to get out and vote… early.

“We all know a lot is at stake in this election, you can’t risk not letting your voice be heard, and heard early,” goes the recording.

The Obama campaign hasn’t left any stone unturned when it comes to getting people to the polls. And they seem completely devoted to having their supporters get to the polls early.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/23/michelle-obama-stars-in-v_n_137297.html

Film director Sue Kramer (Gray Matters) is the mastermind behind the YOU VOTE campaign. She answered a couple of questions about how the project happened.

How did you come up with this idea?

I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a co-chair of the creative coalition’s presence at the DNC and RNC conventions this past summer (other co-chairs were Tim Daly, Kerry Washington, and Tom Fontana.) I had been working all year and was very involved and obsessively reading everything and trying to be as educated as possible. When I went to the DNC I felt that the country was united. When I listened to Obama’s speech I felt he was talking about non-partisanism and he was so inspiring about unifying the country and I walked away passionate about the country. Then I went to RNC and I felt different and it wasn’t because I am a democrat. I felt like their speeches were about division so I thought to myself what could I do to show that this country is unified and that this is not about us and them, or he and she.Hollywood has been criticized forever in terms of being completely democratic and only caring about democratic causes, especially because people think Obama is a celebrity endorsed presidential candidate. I wanted to show that all my conversations with people who came with the Creative Coalition were really more than just being a democrat or a republican, that people cared about the country as a whole. So I came up with this idea and approached Robin Bronk at the Creative Coalition and asked if they would be interested in this video.

Robin introduced me to John Paul DeJoria who owns Paul Mitchell products and he gave us a grant for production and I called my producing partner Jill Footlick who produced Gray Matters and I started rallying the troops asking people to work for free and they said yes and one by one we started getting celebrities.

From the time I came up with it to the time I was finished was just three weeks. Everybody wanted to be involved and were passionate about the project.

W&H: What do you hope this accomplishes?

SK: I hope this gets people out to vote for the candidate of their choice. I want to show it in a passionate and positive way. This is your right. This is the moment and you need to go for it.

W&H: Why is the Margaret Mead quote so integral in the video?

SK: It’s one of my all time favorite quotes. It’s been hanging in my office for the last ten years. I believe in it so much because I really believe it just takes a small group of people to make incredible things happen. Many people get scared and say that I’m not going to cast that first stone because it’s not going to make a big difference in the world. But it actually does. That’s why I put the vote dance in. Because I wanted to show that this is a joyful experience.

W&H: Talk about the You Vote anthem - Today.

SK: I called my composer Andrew Hollander who also writes songs with his wife Dana Parish. I called them at 11pm and told them that I was looking for an anthem — something powerful and joyful. And she said well I’m really busy let me see what I can do. When I woke up the next morning at 8am there was an email with the song. They went to the studio and recorded it. We worked on the lyrics and now everyone is commenting on the song.

W&H: What’s next for you in your career?

SK: I am deciding between two films (that I have written) to shoot in the late spring.

The video is going to be seen on 1,000 movie screens and on Verizon cell phone and of course and all over the web.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-silverstein/celebs-get-on-the-voting_b_134094.html