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Letter to the editor

Official seeks more early voting sites

The supervisor of elections asks for $557,000 to increase the polling places from nine to at least 20.

By MICHAEL SANDLER
Published May 11, 2005

CLEARWATER - Responding to tens of thousands who cast votes before Election Day in 2004, the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections wants to double the number of early voting locations in time for the 2006 election.

Deborah Clark asked the Pinellas County Commission Tuesday to increase her budget next year by 27 percent, much of it to to help pay for 20 early voting sites. That's up from nine sites in 2004, when 70,000 people took advantage of early voting in the two weeks prior to the general election.

Clark expects that trend to continue in 2006. As of Tuesday, 602,889 voters are registered in Pinellas.

"In order to accommodate our voters, we know we need to step up from what we did last year," Clark said. "We need to increase early voting sites. We need to increase the number of machines."

Each site costs nearly $25,000 to staff, stock and run, according to Clark's budgets. She has asked to spend $557,000 on early voting efforts next year.

That makes up the most significant increase in Clark's 2005-06 budget request, which she made during a budget information session.

Clark is asking for $6.5-million, about 27 percent higher than the supervisor's $5.1-million budget for this fiscal year. The increase includes $310,000 to buy new equipment for processing absentee ballots, $261,000 to cover postage costs for mailing state-mandated voter registration cards, and $126,000 to relocate to her new elections office.

Commissioners have the final say and will decide this summer whether they can spare the extra money. The county's budget is approved in September and takes effect in October.

Commission Chairman John Morroni said he hopes they can find the money.

"A 26 percent increase in today's budgets is normally not approved," Morroni said. "But early voting is popular with people, so we should do everything we can within our budget to help her."

Commissioners Ken Welch and Karen Seel said they are concerned about new restrictions on early voting passed last week by the Florida Legislature.

The legislation, which has yet to be signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, limits early voting to eight hours a day during the work week, eight hours over the weekend and prohibits early voting the day before the election.

State lawmakers also denied a request by election supervisors to expand the types of facilities used for early voting. Supervisors are limited to city halls, libraries and their own facilities.

"That seems to be going against the grain," Welch said. "Folks like early voting, and the Legislature made it harder to participate."

Said Clark: "It would be a lot more cost-effective to have fewer sites in larger facilities."

Michael Sandler can be reached at 727 445-4162 or sandler@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 11, 2005, 00:45:11]