by Mary-Kate Roan
Staff Writer
The Duval County Election Advisory Panel (EAP) wants voters to go to the polls early since Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland is still predicting a record turnout for the general election. But this isn’t the first suggestion that the panel has made since its creation by City Council at the recommendation of the Duval County Election Reform Task Force in 2002.
Created to help enhance the election process after the infamous 2000 presidential election, the panel is made up of appointees and advises the mayor, Supervisor of Elections and Council on the election process.
“We help with voter education,” said Joseph Mosley, who joined the panel when it was first reinstated. “We want them to know about the voting process.”
“It was seen at first as a means for people to hash out their emotions on the 2000 election,” said Jim Minion, current chair of the panel, “but eventually it just got too hard to get everyone together.”
According to Mosley, the panel went dormant for about a year before Holland reinstated it in 2005.
“To become a member of the panel you have to be appointed by the Supervisor of Elections, the City Council president or the mayor,” said Minion, who was appointed by Council members Michael Corrigan and Daniel Davis. “Then you’re limited to two terms of two or three years.”
The actual ordinance that created the panel reads that the mayor and Council president each choose three members of the public. The Supervisor of Elections chooses three members as well, with one of those members having to be employed full-time at the Supervisor of Elections office.
Minion is in his final term, as is Mosley, who was part of the newly established panel.
The new panel hit the ground running, starting with random audits in 2006 when the EAP discovered that the new TSx voting machines took too long to upload information. There was also a question about different ways a machine could be manipulated.
“If a person put a corrupted memory card into a machine then the machine would be corrupted,” said Minion, explaining the geometric rate at which the corruption spreads. “And if that card got put into any other machine, the other machines would be corrupted. If an uncorrupted card got put into a corrupted machine the card became corrupted.”
Last year it became Florida law for all votes to have a paper trail. It also required a random audit of a number of each county’s precincts’ voting equipment. While random audits had been in Duval County prior to State law, this made TSx machines obsolete.
EAP had to also figure out another way to get special needs voters to the polls without assistance.
According to Minion, in 2005 the EAP suggested Duval County needed to invest in a machine that marks votes and scans all ballots the same because otherwise there could be lawsuits for discrimination from special needs voters. The 2007 law made this not just a priority but a requirement.
EAP is also responsible for improving voter confidence.
The panel produced a video outlining every procedure that takes place on Election Day – from testing and setting up equipment to what happens to the ballots after they’ve been counted.
“The disability issues are very important to me,” said Dan O’Connor, a three-year panel member and special needs voter.
O’Connor wanted to vote by himself and for other special needs voters to be able to vote without assistance.
To solve the issue, EAP recommended new equipment – AutoMark systems – designed for special needs voters.
“I think our panel is more proactive – not just in the State but in the nation,” said O’Connor.
And that’s why EAP is calling for voters to utilize early voting.
“You never know what can happen on Election Day,” said new EAP member Natalie Alden, speaking especially to disabled voters who need time to get transportation lined up.
“We want to promote early voting because let’s face it – on election day there is no tomorrow if something comes up,” said Minion.
Minion also stated that early voting prevents fraud and is more of a convenience because voters can vote outside of their precincts.
Early voting starts Monday and runs until Nov. 2. There will be 15 early voting sites in Duval County and Holland has said more poll workers – around 800 – have been hired for the general election this year compared to previous years.
EAP wants voters to vote early to save themselves the hassle of standing in potentially record-breaking lines Nov. 4.
For more information on early voting, visit www.duvalelections.com or call the Supervisor of Elections office at 630-1414.
356-2466