Who Has Your Vote For Supervisor of Elections?

Two debates in and the Supervisor of Elections battle between incumbent Kathy Dent and challenger County Commissioner Jon Thaxton is setting a tone for the office. 

Dent touts her experience for becoming "a professional elections administrator" being certified nationally and at the state level where Thaxton promotes his open mind considering all sides and being able to find common ground between adversaries. 

After , Monday settled in as a typical debate with an occasional jab and one-liner but no fireworks.

The two squared off at Monday night for a League of Women Voters forum stating their stance on a myriad of elections issues before voters decide during the Aug. 14 Republican Primary.

So what would they change? It depends, but as the office answers to directives set by the state and federal governments, cooperation is needed, the two say.

Longboat Key resident Victoria Ann Brill is running as a non-partisan write-in candidate as well but did not participate in either debate.

Changes By Legislature

Dent:  "House Bill 1355, which was passed last year and among the Supervisors around the state, most of us were unhappy. … We did not like the third-party voter registration restrictions. We did not like the fact that early voting was going to be reduced. We did not like the fact that if someone moved outside of the county on Election Day they would have to vote on a provisional ballot."

"I would like to see more early voting sites available. The law only allows us to be in branch offices, libraries and city halls. … Also would like to see Legislature look at Vote Center concept."

Thaxton: "I think the flexibility for early voting is a wise idea, but I would also like the Legislature ease the confusion we have around the open and closed primaries. We have a Constitutional Amendment that was voted on by the people  overwhelmingly to have an open primary provided all the candidates are of the same party. There was a decision made by a lawyer in the Division of the Elections that kind of circumvented that decision and now there's just a lot of confusion."

"Rather than having the Constitution decided by a bureaucrat in Tallahassee, I think that either voters or our elected officials need to rise up to the occasion and clear up this confusion once and for all."

Write-In Candidates

Thaxton: "The Constitution is very clear. It says when all of the candidates are of the same party and they will not face any opposition in the General Election, it shall be open. Again an attorney in the Division of Elections says that if there is a write-in candidate, someone whose name is not on the ballot, somebody who doesn't pay a fee, somebody who doesn't have to gather signatures, they say that's opposition.

Well, that's not opposition. That's like saying Sarasota Little League is opposition to the Tampa Bay Rays and say that they can't be the World Champions until they beat the Little League team."

"There is no opposition with a write-in candidate, but it needs to be resolved by the Legislature or the voters. What our opinion is of the law is of no consequence because we are Constitutional Officers. We have to follow the law and have to follow the Constitution and presently it's not clear."

Dent: "That attorney he keeps referring to is Clay Roberts, and it was back during the 2000 election that this happened. … Since that there has been very little impetus by the Legislature to make those changes because the Republican Party wants to make sure they select their candidates on the General Election ballot, and the Democratic Party wants to make sure they select their candidates.

It happens with both Democrats and Republicans. … It's a Legislative move to make, and the parties are not real excited about making that move."

How Would You Decrease Supervisor of Elections Budget

Dent: "Last year we turned back $500,000 by working hard to eliminate things that were not necessary and by being as thrifty as we could possibly be.

Going forward, we have reduced the number of polling locations; we've reduced the number of precincts. We've done that because the voting trend in this country, in this state and locally is more and more people are voting absentee and are voting early.

To open the polling places on Election Day is by far the most expensive way of voting. Because of the trends we're looking at saving $100,000 per election going forward."

Thaxton: "The Board [of County Commissioners] were glad to get the additional money back so we could provide services to you. The money was an uptick from the previous years budget where Kathy had asked to have more precincts and to print the Spanish ballots.

“There was no need for more precincts and the Spanish ballots weren’t prepared, so it was basically a return of an increase given the year before.”

“The best way this Supervisor of Elections Office can increase its budget efficiencies is to simply avoid the conflicts and litigations it seems to be embroiled in that costs taxpayers money unnecessarily.”

Dent Rebuttal: "What the commissioner doesn't understand is that elections budgets are cyclical. And sometimes we have two and a half elections and sometimes in fiscal years we have a half of an election, so yes, our budget does go up and down. …

The Department of Justice did not require us to go to the Spanish ballots, so there may be some money ready to go back again this year because we don't need to do that yet."

…

"We have had three lawsuits. I don't know how many the County Commission has had the last 12 years. I would venture to say hundreds because I think they had 87 last year or this year alone. Those three lawsuits — we prevailed in all three of those lawsuits and the one in particular helped save the voters of Sarasota County and the taxpayers millions of dollars.

Educating Voters

Thaxton: "The Board of County Commissioners had on its Consent Agenda the re-precincting lines drawn by the Supervisor of Elections, which is required by law. We have to by law approve them. We can't change them.

I would have taken those boundaries to the public before I took them to the Board to incorporate them into law. ...

Here the decision was made, input was sought after the fact and changes cannot be made."

Dent: "We did not receive the final redistricting information from the Department of Justice until April 3. On June the 8th, the end of qualifying, we had to have all the voters geocoded in a proper precinct. We had to have the information to the Board of County Commissioners in two weeks in advance, which we had to do by the eighth."

We didn't have the opportunity to take the information to the voters, but we took all of that information on the road. We did five separate town hall meetings to share with all of the voters with where all the polling places were going to be. We are also mailing voter information cards to every voter. We will be mailing sample ballots to every registered voter, and we had an education planned.

Because of the redistricting and the lines drawn by the Legislature, we could make no changes in those particular lines.

… It's the County Commissioners who draw lines by approval of the Supervisor of Elections.

What Would You Change In The Office

Dent: "I would like the office to be non-partisan, and that's something that would be up to the Legislature. After lobbying for many years, they have not made that office non-partisan. ...

I would like to see us go to the Vote Centers. A Vote Center  is where a registered voters could go to any of maybe 30 different places for the elections starting eight days out. They could in ballot style. It would easily be accessible to anyone and parking would be readily available.

Thaxton: "After our experience with the touch screens, I would not launch into this vote center until it's very well vetted. I've read about them and there's some mixed reviews. It does save money but it disenfranchises voters such as those in the rural communities.

The one thing I wouldn't change in the Supervisor of Elections Office is its very competent and capable staff. They're very remarkable group of individuals.

…

I guess the one thing I would change in the Supervisor of Elections Office would be the Supervisor of Elections.

Increasing Voter Turnout

Thaxton: "I would probably go back to the roots of our democracy and remind people that this system of American democracy does not work unless you're engaged and informed."

"I would first compliment Kathy on her efforts and I would probably attempt to take the efforts at a higher level."

Dent: "It's not the responsibility of the Supervisor of Elections to get out the vote. It's the candidates and the issues that actually draw people to the polls. In Sarasota County in the last two presidential elections, we've had 81 percent-plus voter turnout."

"If we try to educate them we might have a tendency to sway the voter one way or another. This has to be a totally impartial office."

Voting Machines

Thaxton: "The most recent election we had, If one were to go back and look at the election conduct reports for this year's primary election, the problems with the machines persist.

Manatee County had six problems noted on their conduct of election report. Sarasota had 172. That's quite a big difference between six and 172. It's the same election. It's a very simple primary — minimal things on the ballot, but the problems, they do exist. I think the perception that they're there is a real one and needs to be taken seriously by the Supervisor's office.

Dent: "We keep better records in Sarasota County than they do in Manatee County, and we're more thorough with the actual conduct of elections report.

We include everything including poll worker error and any incident that happens at the polling places. So yes, we're thorough with our reports."