Tampabay: Teams hit road for vote drive

So far, it seems the effort to register students 18 and older is paying off. According to Elections Supervisor Deborah Clark, more than 2,400 high school seniors have registered this year, which she said is up significantly from last year.

On Tuesday, Clark announced the start of the second phase of the "Vote Pinellas!" campaign to make voter registration and ballot casting as convenient as possible.

Teaming up with area businesses such as Wal-Mart, Eckerd Corp. and Office Depot, Clark and her staff will appear at local businesses to register voters and demonstrate the touch screen voting machines.

The drive begins this morning and continues until the registration deadline ends Monday.

As of Friday, 575,414 Pinellas residents had registered to vote, a slight increase from last year. Clark is determined to see that number rise.

"We're putting (voter information) in front of them," said Clark, adding she's doing all she can to eliminate people's excuses for not voting.

Election volunteers will set up registration tables at locations around the county to try and make voter registration quick and painless. With a different theme each day featuring a government service or local business and a plethora of places to register, the campaign will likely draw hundreds of new voters, Clark said.

She also encourages people who have changed their name or address since the last election to stop by one of the locations. Changing voter information before the election will cut down on long waits at the polls, she said.

Even though the county experienced few election problems during the September primary, Clark said she won't be able to relax until all the votes are counted in the Nov. 5 general election.

"I feel like we're going straight from the preseason to the Super Bowl here," she said.

Clark sympathized with the struggles of elections supervisors in Miami-Dade and Broward counties in the primary election. Late-opening polls and lost votes in the South Florida counties drew harsh criticism and brought back bitter reminders of the 2000 presidential election.

"I feel very sorry for my peers," she said. "It could happen in any county."

But Clark is crossing her fingers and double-checking the system to make sure disaster doesn't strike in Pinellas County.

Citing the county's extensive voting machine training program and small training classes for poll workers and Election Day troubleshooters known as election advisers, Clark said everything should run smoothly for the Nov. 5 election.

"The system will work because of its redundancy," she said. "You always need a backup for your backup."

The campaign is just one way Clark and her staff are working to increase voter registration and turnout for the election.

The staff is also working to encourage more high schoolers to come to the polls, said election volunteer Bob Caufazzo.

"A lot of high schools have been calling us to come in and talk to students," Caufazzo said. "The main difference this year is that we're out there going to the people."

Don Walker, an economics teacher at St. Petersburg High School, said the election volunteers who recently came into his class registered many of his students to vote.

"The volunteers were great," he said. "They brought everything right into the classroom."

If you go

Today's theme is "Government on the Go" bus day. Locations for voter registration are Palm Lake Village in Clearwater from 11:50 a.m. to 1 p.m.; St. Petersburg College in Seminole from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.; St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; University of South Florida in St. Petersburg from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m.; Holiday Inn at St. Pete Beach from 11 a.m. to noon; and Tarpon Springs City Hall parking lot from 8:30 to 9:40 a.m.

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