by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Responding to a surprisingly low number of absentee ballot requests, Supervisor of Elections John Stafford has sent a letter to each candidate for local office — and four political party leaders — asking them to encourage those needing absentee ballots for the April 15 primary to make their request soon.
As of Thursday, Stafford’s office had only received approximately 300 absentee ballot requests. With just over seven weeks until the election, Stafford and his staff are hoping that number gets much closer to the 18,000 that voted absentee in last November’s state elections.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a problem, but I’m just a little concerned,” said Stafford, explaining that those who request an absentee ballot must do so each year. “I’m concerned those who voted absentee [in November] think it will come automatically. I wouldn’t say I’m overly concerned, but 300 is a little low. We wipe the slate clean at the end of each calendar year.”
History shows that thousands vote absentee in Jacksonville every election, and those votes go a long way towards deciding elections and boosting voter turnout percentages. In 1995 — the last time a mayoral election was held — over 10,000 people requested absentee ballots for both the primary and general election. And a huge percentage returned those ballots. There were 10,068 request for the primary and 8,800 were returned. There were 11,491 requests for the general election and 9,569 were returned.
The numbers went down in 1999 and that may be attributed to the fact Mayor John Delaney was unopposed. There were 5,545 requests for the primary and 4,546 were returned. There were 6,606 requests for the general election and 4,888 were returned.
Stafford believes between the candidates and the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian and Reform parties, the number of absentee requests and ballots returned will go up dramatically over the next several weeks.
“The Republicans have not done their mailout yet and the Democrats traditionally work the absentee ballots hard,” explained Stafford, adding he expects more than half the registered voters to head to the polls April 15. “I think with the mayor’s race, we’ll have a good turnout; about 50-55 percent. But, it’s early and that figure counts absentee ballots.”
Stafford said at this time in 1995, about 1,000 absentee ballots had been requested, a figure significantly higher than the current number.
“Maybe I’m overreacting [by sending out a letter], but I’d rather err on the side of caution,” said Stafford.