by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland made his job clear Monday at the Rotary Club of Jacksonville.
“My job is not to tell you my opinion or how to vote. My job is to tell you how to get information on the proposed amendments so that you can make an informed decision,” he said.
Holland presented an overview of each of the six proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution that will be on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.
He also noted that the Florida Supreme Court disqualified some of the proposed amendments and how that nuance of the election will affect its cost to taxpayers by reducing the amount of printing required to provide a ballot for each one of the more than 525,000 registered voters.
“We started with nine, but three were removed. That will save Duval County $250,000 because now the ballot can be one page instead of two pages,” said Holland.
His remarks dealt primarily with how each amendment could impact fiscal issues on the state and local levels. One amendment, he said, could have a tremendous impact on the annual budget for his office.
Amendment 4, if it were to become law, would require any changes to the comprehensive land use plan to be up for voter referendum after the change is approved by local government.
Holland said the language provided to voters on the Nov. 2 ballot states that the fiscal impact of the amendment “cannot be estimated precisely” but discloses that local governments will incur additional costs, depending on the frequency and timing of the referendums.
He also said there were more than 100 comprehensive plan amendments in 2009 in Duval County and if all were included, there would have to be an additional 10 pages added to that ballot.
“It would add $2.4 million to the cost of the November election,” said Holland. “And that’s just the amount for the additional pages.”
Additional costs would be incurred for advertising elections, printing data on each change and distributing that information to registered voters before the referendum.
Another question, Holland said, would be when and how often to have the referendums. One option would be to put the proposals on the ballot every two years to coincide with either state or federal elections.
“We are contemplating separate elections” for the changes, said Holland, possibly annual ballots that would be mailed to voters who would return them by mail similar to an absentee ballot. Holland said that would cost $2.1 million per referendum.
“The supervisor of elections’ budget is prepared for a specific number of elections each year. More elections will require more funding and that means taxes are likely to go up,” said Holland.
Holland also talked about Amendment 2, the “Homestead ad valorem tax exemption credit for deployed military personnel.” He said it would grant an additional property tax exemption for homeowners serving in the armed forces who are deployed to combat zones. The additional exemption would be prorated based on the amount of time they spent on deployment.
“When government gives away tax exemptions, it either has to collect more money from other people or lower its costs,” said Holland.
Traditionally, there has been a trend toward what Holland called “undervoting” when it comes to constitutional amendments on general election ballots, said Holland. While voters will select a candidate for governor or their choice in a legislative branch race, they might fail to vote on one or more amendments.
“Often, when a voter isn’t familiar with an amendment, they will vote ‘no’ to maintain the status quo,” he said.
When asked if he envisioned a day when elections would be conducted on the Internet as a way to save money, Holland said he’s very doubtful that would ever happen.
“It’s a trust issue. People will transfer their money over the Internet, but they want a paper trail for their vote,” said Holland.
He did allow that there will probably be Internet voting for military personnel serving overseas. That would affect about 3,500 registered voters in Duval County, he said.
Holland provided the Rotarians with a state website and instructions (see box) on how to learn more about the constitutional amendments and which groups are supporting each of them, both philosophically and financially. Holland said he encourages all voters to educate themselves about the issues before they cast their ballot on Nov. 2.
356-2466