Friday, June 24, 2005
Multipartisan forum becomes Democrat-dominated event
Reports from attendees of this past Tuesday night's elections forum at the Supervisor of Elections office turned out to be much ado about nothing, despite the heightened sense of activity apparently felt by many of the participants.
Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel invited 20 representatives from local political and community organizations to engage in a roundtable discussion of the elections process. Fortunately for the Supervisor, all participants were in agreement on most of the major issues.
Foremost among them was the issue of paper trails for paperless balloting, such as that conducted through touch-screen voting. Leaders of the local Republican and Democrat parties agreed that printers should be attached to the screens to provide a paper trail for verification of results.
That the two major local parties agreed was much more newsworthy than what they agreed upon. Their call for paper trails at the local level was in actuality a moot point, inasmuch as the printers cannot be used at the local level because the state of Florida does not allow it.
Secretary of State Glenda Hood and the legislature have not certified the use of the printers, even at local discretion. Thus, despite the agreement at Tuesday's forum that they are desirable, that opinion remains only an opinion and cannot be translated into action.
The agreement between the two major parties was also beneficial to Ertel, allowing him to escape any controversy that may have developed had serious partisan contention arisen over any of the discussed issues.
Ertel may use Tuesday night's exhibition of civility among participants and lack of disagreement as justification to continue holding his ill-advised forums, but the reality is the Supervisor of Elections was fortunate the event did not develop into an ugly debate of partisan disagreement.
Those who attended the forum and provided Slats with input generally expressed the opinion that the forum seemed to be little more than a public relations ploy by Ertel as he positions himself for a 2006 election run for the office, to which he was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush earlier this year following elected Supervisor Dennis Joyner's resignation due to health reasons.
If publicity was the Supervisor's goal, he was trumped by the performance of local Democrats.
The limited news coverage provided the event from the mainstream media included a continually run story on News13 that focused entirely on the efforts of Seminole Democrats to secure paper trails for touch-screen voting.
The Democrats have been vocal in their call for the paper trail in recent weeks, calling attention to the opposition to such by Governor Jeb Bush's administration and its Secretary of State Glenda Hood.
Statewide Republican opposition to the accountability the paper trails would provide is the major reason that local GOP leader Jim Stelling surprised some attendees of this past Tuesday's forum when he expressed full support for the idea.
News13's coverage of the forum barely mentioned Ertel or the Republicans, making it seem strictly a Democrat Party event. Other mainstream media ignored the event.
Despite the efforts of our Supervisor of Elections to accrue some positive publicity for himself through the creation of his "forum", the local Democrats largely stole his thunder as they continue to assert themselves and try to establish a presence in Seminole County.
Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel invited 20 representatives from local political and community organizations to engage in a roundtable discussion of the elections process. Fortunately for the Supervisor, all participants were in agreement on most of the major issues.
Foremost among them was the issue of paper trails for paperless balloting, such as that conducted through touch-screen voting. Leaders of the local Republican and Democrat parties agreed that printers should be attached to the screens to provide a paper trail for verification of results.
That the two major local parties agreed was much more newsworthy than what they agreed upon. Their call for paper trails at the local level was in actuality a moot point, inasmuch as the printers cannot be used at the local level because the state of Florida does not allow it.
Secretary of State Glenda Hood and the legislature have not certified the use of the printers, even at local discretion. Thus, despite the agreement at Tuesday's forum that they are desirable, that opinion remains only an opinion and cannot be translated into action.
The agreement between the two major parties was also beneficial to Ertel, allowing him to escape any controversy that may have developed had serious partisan contention arisen over any of the discussed issues.
Ertel may use Tuesday night's exhibition of civility among participants and lack of disagreement as justification to continue holding his ill-advised forums, but the reality is the Supervisor of Elections was fortunate the event did not develop into an ugly debate of partisan disagreement.
Those who attended the forum and provided Slats with input generally expressed the opinion that the forum seemed to be little more than a public relations ploy by Ertel as he positions himself for a 2006 election run for the office, to which he was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush earlier this year following elected Supervisor Dennis Joyner's resignation due to health reasons.
If publicity was the Supervisor's goal, he was trumped by the performance of local Democrats.
The limited news coverage provided the event from the mainstream media included a continually run story on News13 that focused entirely on the efforts of Seminole Democrats to secure paper trails for touch-screen voting.
The Democrats have been vocal in their call for the paper trail in recent weeks, calling attention to the opposition to such by Governor Jeb Bush's administration and its Secretary of State Glenda Hood.
Statewide Republican opposition to the accountability the paper trails would provide is the major reason that local GOP leader Jim Stelling surprised some attendees of this past Tuesday's forum when he expressed full support for the idea.
News13's coverage of the forum barely mentioned Ertel or the Republicans, making it seem strictly a Democrat Party event. Other mainstream media ignored the event.
Despite the efforts of our Supervisor of Elections to accrue some positive publicity for himself through the creation of his "forum", the local Democrats largely stole his thunder as they continue to assert themselves and try to establish a presence in Seminole County.
hy