by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
The fallout from the 2000 elections and the ensuing Election Reform Task Force is still sprinkling down on City agencies.
Duval County Supervisor of Elections John Stafford threw the old punch card voting system to the curb in favor of a relatively modern optical scan system. Stafford also received some extra help around the office in the form of voter education specialists. Now, City Council is moving ever closer to bringing another task force recommendation to fruition with the imminent creation of an Elections Advisory Panel. The advisory panel will be responsible for reviewing various aspects of the voting cycle, from voter participation to ballot design. City Council president Matt Carlucci will introduce a bill outlining the formation of the panel at Tuesday’s Council meeting.
“The schedule is we’ll try to introduce it at the next Council meeting on Tuesday and try to introduce it as an emergency,” said City attorney Jason Teal, who is drafting the legislation.
Normally, a bill can take from six weeks to two months of Council meetings and committees before it is passed as law. Carlucci’s bill will be given priority to hasten the formation of the advisory panel.
“The next election is in September,” said Teal. “We want to give this panel some time to kind of get its feet wet. Because we’re creating it from scratch, they’re going to have to create all new bylaws. They’re going to have to determine how often they meet and what procedures they’ll have.”
While some details of the bill are still being adjusted, the Elections Advisory Panel will have nine members. Three will be selected by the mayor, three by the Council president and three by the Supervisor of Elections.
Tentative candidates for the panel are not limited to elected officials or bureaucrats. Carlucci’s list, while not firm, includes an attorney, a member of the League of Women Voters and a staff member at Edward Waters College.
“It’s kind of citizen involvement, if you will,” said Teal.
Although the Elections Advisory Panel will create an additional group of eyes and ears to measure the effectiveness of Duval County’s voting system, it will lack the political clout to decisively effect change.
“As far as the teeth go, no,” said Teal. “They’re going to be advisory only. The difficulty with the panel is the Supervisor of Elections is a constitutionally created officer. So they really can’t do anything that’s going to get in the way.”
The panel is likely to be taken seriously, nevertheless, based on the publicity the problems with the 2000 election cycle generated. Some of the specific functions the Election Reform Task Force had in mind for the Elections Advisory Panel include, review voting instructions for clarity and accuracy, act as ombudsman for voting complaints, measure election effectiveness and measure and report community satisfaction with the voting process.
If the bill moves smoothly through Council and committees, the panel should be formed and operating by May.