As Monday's 9 p.m. deadline approaches, elections offices and independent groups increase their efforts.
By LAUREN BAYNE ANDERSON
Published October 2, 2004
[Times photo: Lara Cerri]
Gloria and Harry Harvey of St. Petersburg joke with customers Friday outside a Blockbuster video rental store on 34th Street S while helping people register to vote. Harry Harvey has been a district manager of voter registration in Pinellas County for four months.
Elections offices and independent groups across the region are feverishly working on last-minute voter registration efforts before the deadline arrives Monday evening.
With the hotly contested presidential race, voter registration for the 2004 election is way up - far surpassing registration numbers from 2000.
"It's like a freight train is coming right at us," said Deborah Clark, Pinellas County supervisor of elections. "You know it's not going to slow down or stop, so you just have to pace yourself."
Since the 2000 election, more than 1-million new voters have registered in Florida, state elections officials say, an increase mirrored throughout the Tampa Bay area.
In Hillsborough County, new registrations this year are three times the number registered in 2000. Pinellas County registration applications are piling in by the thousands.
Registration efforts are going strong through the weekend. Some elections offices have extended weekend hours, and registration drives are taking place at some Kmarts, Michaels Arts and Crafts stores and at the University of South Florida Sun Dome, where filmmaker Michael Moore will headline an event Sunday.
Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida, said voter registration has jumped because of an intense bipartisan effort to get out the vote.
"Our state, with only 537 votes determining the election, has seen up close that our vote really does matter," MacManus said. "Both parties realized that they had to put a lot more effort earlier into registering people to vote."
In Hillsborough County, 42,000 voters have registered since the presidential preference primary in March.
Pasco County has about 38,000 new registered voters this year. Hernando has had an increase of 11,484, and Citrus is expecting an increase of about 7,000. Pinellas elections officials could not provide totals.
In addition to the highly polarized political environment, pop culture and technology played a major role in the higher registration numbers this year, MacManus said.
"When you have a war and economic issues, that spikes interest to begin with," she said. "But they are also reaching out to young people through the Internet, comedians and music; there's a lot more ways to reach people than there used to be."
Hillsborough Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson attributed the increases in part to independent groups such as the Florida Consumer Action Network, ACT and Floridians for All, which have registered voters independent of elections offices.
Under the umbrella of the newly formed America Votes, independent groups this year coordinated efforts to target who they call "progressive" voters.
Ana Cruz, state director for America Votes, said the organizations worked together canvasing neighborhoods, sending mailings and planning for events. That cooperation made them better organized and more effective, she said.
"After 2000 we realized that the one way we are truly going to change the face of politics in Florida is through coordinating," Cruz said. "So for the first time, you had the League of Conservation Voters sitting down at the same table as the Sierra Club."
Joseph Agostini, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Florida, said there are more than 76,000 volunteers around the state helping mobilize and register voters.
"We are knocking on doors, walking through neighborhoods, making phone calls," he said. "It's an ongoing grass-roots movement."
Despite the strong numbers, voter registration has been hampered by this year's unusual hurricane season. Susan Gill, elections supervisor in Citrus County, said the county had to close one office because of the storms. And the offices have been swamped with new residents and voters changing outdated information.
"Some people may not have had this on the forefront of their mind when they have other things to worry about with the storms," Gill said. "But the thing they can do last minute is get to the supervisor's office and register."
While many offices will focus on registration throughout the weekend, others are winding down. The Hillsborough office will host events this weekend, but Johnson said his staff is shifting focus to processing the applications it has.
"We initiated a massive voter registration drive effort earlier in the year," Johnson said. "The applications have cascaded in, and we are working diligently to process each and every one accurately by Election Day."
Elections offices and independent groups all will begin to shift gears after the 9 p.m. deadline Monday, MacManus said.
"Up to now the focus has been on registration," she said. "But now we're going to see a switch to actually getting people out to the polls."
