A Jacksonville City Council member says a county panel put together in 2002 to examine the election process and make recommendations to the Elections Supervisor needs an updated mission. Councilman Garrett Dennis wants the Duval County Election Advisory Panel to shift its focus to voter experience.
The nine-member volunteer advisory panel, selected by the mayor, elections supervisor and City Council president, was established following the 2000 presidential election’s Florida recount, which ultimately led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
During the recount process, ballot styles and Florida’s overall election system came under scrutiny — something Dennis, who worked in the Supervisor of Elections office for about 14 years starting in 2001, is all too familiar with.
“There were a lot of irregularities around the state,” he said.
The advisory panel was, and still is, tasked with with making sure issues like that don’t happen again, so its official duties include making recommendations for ballot appearance and polling locations. Dennis said these charges are outdated, because much of that is uniform across Florida.
“Years ago a county could have punch cards, the optical scan [or] they [could] have the touch screen type voting system,” Dennis said. “The state has standardized the election equipment where every county has to have an optical scan paper ballot machine.”
He wants to eliminate fraud prevention, ballot appearance and polling locations from the panel’s scope, having it instead focus exclusively on voter education and experience, which are already part of its duties.
“[Say the] Supervisor of Elections is writing out instructions to the voter,” Dennis said. “The Supervisor of Elections may write it out in a way that he understands it,” but an advisory panel made up of people with different experiences may have suggestions for clarity.
Dennis said his bill came about after former City Council President Lori Boyer had Council members examine city boards, commissions and advisory panels. The Duval County Election Advisory Panel was one that hadn’t been updated since its creation.
Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan said he won’t comment on the bill at this time.
Photo used under Creative Commons.
Reporter Lindsey Kilbride can be reached at lkilbride@wjct.org, 904-358-6359 or on Twitter at @lindskilbride.
