by David Ball
Staff Writer
It was a familiar and comforting sound for Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland, as voting machines sucked in and spit out paper ballots and generated printed receipts that showed everything was in order.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Duval County Canvassing Board at the main Elections Office on Norwood Ave., Holland tested a random sampling of just a handful of the 335 voting machines that will be available at the 285 precincts across the county for the presidential primary election on Jan. 29.
Some machines will be employed sooner, as early voting begins at many precinct locations at 10 a.m. Jan. 14. and runs to 5 p.m. Jan. 27. But as far as the equipment goes, Holland expects the entire process to go smoothly.
“We’ve never had a machine fail,” said Holland, who added that a few machines have been returned to the state for noisy or errant operation after his office’s own testing.
“We’ve already tested every single piece of equipment. This is just the public test,” added Holland, who for several hours on Tuesday signed off on each test with his fellow Canvassing Board members: County Judge James Ruth and City Council Vice President Ronnie Fussell.
But based on voting history and preliminary figures, Holland reported that only about 25 percent of registered voters will enjoy the fruits of his office’s testing and preparation.
“Right now, our only gauge is absentee ballot requests, and that is in the mid-20 percent range,” said Holland, who added that is the historical average turnout for presidential primaries.
“But I think it should be better than that as advertising gets happening for the amendment, and you’ve also got races in both parties,” he said. “You always hope for a better voter turnout.”
Besides choosing candidates for the Republican and Democratic party presidential nominations, Duval County voters will join the rest of the state’s voters in deciding a controversial constitutional amendment to change property tax laws.
The referendum, which requires 60 percent voter approval to pass, would increase homestead exemptions, add transferability on homestead exemptions and add a cap on the annual assessment of non-homesteaded properties as well as provide a $25,000 exemption for businesses. The measures would reportedly save the average taxpayer $240 annually.
Gov. Charlie Crist has been touring the state in support of the amendment, and some groups, such as Realtors, have also openly supported it.
However, groups such as Florida TaxWatch have had negative reactions. On Thursday, the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters is kicking off its “Save Our Services” campaign with a press conference to oppose the tax reform amendment.
But Holland said this controversy, not to mention the environment surrounding the presidential candidates, isn’t translating into a higher voter turnout, at least in early projections. This bothered Ruth, who was serving for the first time on the Canvassing Board.
“I remember as a kid traveling with my grandparents and great grandparents to polling precincts, and I remember how proud they were to exercise that right to vote,” said Ruth.
“I remember they talked about how much of a struggle it was to be able to vote,” he added. “We’ve made significant progress, but I’d like to see more participation from eligible voters.”
On Tuesday, it was Ruth’s job to pull the names of random voting machines from bowls representing each of the 15 City Council districts. Ruth said after having his name on several election ballots in the past, it was rewarding to help ensure the accuracy of the voting process.
“This is an opportunity to participate in the process rather than sitting on the sideline complaining, and it’s the same thing I tell my juries,” he said. “I have a 10-year-old, and she goes into the booth with me and looks over the ballot. The only problem is now she tries to dictate who I vote for, and then she tells it to people at her school.”
More voting information, including times and locations for early voting precincts, are available at the Supervisor of Elections Web site, www.duvalelections.com.