by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Beth Fleet is so happy last week is over, she took the rest of this week off.
As Candidates & Records Director for the Supervisor of Elections Office, Fleet is primarily responsible — as you might have guessed — for keeping track of filed candidates and the records of them and the voters of Duval County.
Last week she was specially busy. From Monday at noon until Friday at noon, a host of political veterans and greenhorns paraded through the candidate filing room. One-by-one Fleet made sure every single item was properly signed, paid for and filled out. By noon-o-one, Fleet and her staff had set the roster for the Aug. 26 primary and the Nov. 4 general election. Who wins is out of Fleet’s control, but if they were serious about running, they went through Fleet.
Fleet’s first exposure to the election process was as a volunteer member of Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland’s campaign team.
“Now that I know what I know from this side of the desk, I have a whole different perspective,” said Fleet, who joined the office after serving as director of adult services for the Jewish Community Alliance.
Fleet succeeded Frankie Knight who succeeded Tommie Bell, who had the position for what seemed like forever. Over those years, the job has certainly changed. Running for office may still be about raising funds, shaking hands and getting the message out, but how the elections office functions has changed dramatically.
One of the first things Fleet did was help streamline the process. Part of accomplishing that goal was to purge — or destroy — old elections records. Some records have a shelf life of 22 months, some just a year and others 10 years. Just after she started, Fleet realized the office was storing records from the 1970s.
“Last year we were able to accomplish something we hadn’t done in a very long time,” she said.
Fleet contracted File Source to help destroy elections and voter records that no longer needed to be kept. The process involved examining every box in the office’s storage to determine what could be trashed and had to be saved.
Eventually, thousands of cases of records kept off-site were shredded.
Fleet’s other priority is that of the candidates. Making sure they go from the filing stage to qualified isn’t just important the candidate, it’s important to the voter. When someone comes in and says they want to run for office, Fleet talks to them about the process and what they are potentially getting into. The serious ones get a candidate handbook to read front to back. Others — those she can tell are in the office on behalf of someone else — are asked to spend a little more time contemplating their decision.
“I spend a lot of time deciphering their motivation,” said Fleet, adding if she can tell someone is in the office on behalf of someone, the conversation ends quickly. “Why lecture to a third party?”
Fleet also assists candidates who come in and need to file forms and meet deadlines. Often many don’t realize those forms can be filed on-line. Others don’t realize their financial reports can be filed electronically. Fleet doesn’t enter the information for the less computer-savvy, but she will set them up at a computer, get them started, answer questions and make sure they are doing things properly.
Does she enjoy all of this, even qualifying week?
“Yes, but it’s stressful,” she said. “I can do a lot of things at one time and I don’t melt down very often. It takes a lot for that to happen. It did not happen this (last) week. That was an accomplishment.”
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