Back in September, I did a study on the number of registered voters per early voting site for each county in Florida in which I found that Pinellas County ranks dead last.
As it turns out, this isn't the only problem with Deborah Clark's record as Supervisor of Elections in Pinellas County.
Not only does Pinellas have the highest ratio of registered voters to early voting site, but the locations of those early voting sites are incovenient to a large segment of the voting public:
Look at any map of Pinellas County and it is easy to see that the county is roughly divided in half geographically by Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in Clearwater. So it is inexplicable, offensive even, that when elections officials chose the polling places for early voting this month, they didn't pick any locations north of Gulf-to-Bay.
...
For a resident of East Lake, the closest early voting location is an hourlong round-trip across and down the county to the courthouse in downtown Clearwater. - St. Petersburg Times, Jan. 22, 2008
Let's take a closer look at Jeb Bush appointee Deborah Clark's record over time:
"She should be making it as easy to vote as possible, not limiting options." Clark's "stubborn crusade" is "wrongheaded." She is "alone and dead wrong" on this issue. - St. Petersburg Times, 9/21/08
Her office "discourages early voting" and her early voting plan "snubs half the county" - St. Petersburg Times, 1/23/08 & 2/8/08
"Pinellas Elections office needed eight private contractors for its electronic voting system. For the primary elect it was 13." - St Petersburg Times 11/09/2006.
"Her staff lost track of 280 absentee and provisional ballots that were not counted until it was too late." - St. Petersburg Times, 11/4/05
Careless, avoidable error has once again marred the performance of Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark." - St. Petersburg Times Editorial, 12/8/04
Clark's office has been "plagued by more embarrassing mistakes" and "a series of gaffes" - St. Petersburg Times, 12/7/04
Her blunders have "raised bipartisan concerns about Clark's management of the office" - St. Petersburg Times, 12/4/04
"She already has come under fire three times for mishandling ballots" - St. Petersburg Times, 12/3/04
"In 2000, the office neglected to count about 1,400 absentee ballots on Election Day - and counted another 600 ballots twice." - St. Petersburg Times, 11/19/04
"About 600 voters who should have been able to vote in the [Lealman Fire Commission] race could not; another 700 who weren't entitled to vote were allowed" - St. Petersburg Times, 11/19/04
"Clark's election flubs draw fire." - St. Petersburg Times, 11/10/02
Now, Jon Ausman (Florida member of the DNC), is calling for a Grand Jury investigation claiming that Clark's refusal to provide additional early voting sites when even the Florida Legislature allows for locations other than the ones she's using as a possible case of misfeasance.
It's time for Deborah Clark's tenure as Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections to come to an end.
Support Jack Killingsworth for Supervisor of Election in Pinellas County
On the issues he's the best option for Pinellas voters. For example:
- he believes voting is a right and that the Supervisor of Elections should make it as easy as reasonably possible for voters to exercise that right.
- he would open 11 more early voting sites at public libraries or city halls to bring the ratio of registered voters to early voting site to be inline with the statewide average.
- he would schedule early voting hours to be more available to working voters (currently early voting hours are 8:00am - 4:00pm).
Plus, he has 40 years of experience designing mission critical computer and managing computer systems where errors are not allowed. He won't be at the mercy of Voting Equipment Vendors for Elections Support.