Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

It looks like Senator Diane Feinstein is requesting that a pair of federal agencies, the General Accounting Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, examine the voting machines in Florida District 13. It is as yet unknown whether both the hardware and software will be under scrutiny. Theres more from the St. Pete Times:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, is asking the General Accountability Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct “top to bottom investigation” of the machines in Sarasota County.

Feinstein’s remarks came during a Senate Rules Committee hearing on electronic election reform that largely focused on the race between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings.

“Now, there are those who say it’s impossible to adopt meaningful security and verifiability requirements for the 2008 election,” she said. “But one only has to look at what happened in Sarasota to see how dangerous it might be to wait.”

Buchanan was sworn in to office last month but Jennings continues to dispute her slim loss both in the Florida courts and in Congress.

While this development is somewhat reassuring for advocates of transparency in elections, Florida law still protects the voting machine vendors from opening up their machines because of supposed “trade secrets”. I guess trade secrets is a melange of crappy software and unsecured hardware. I’m glad that Crist is moving towards verifiable paper trails and the elimination of unreliable touch screen voting, but is he really serious about ensuring fair elections? Where does he stand on FL-13? These measures will benefit voters in the long term, but are we just expected to let bygones be bygones?

It looks like, despite claims to the contrary on Buchanan’s part, there were definitely equipment related voting problems in the race for FL-13. On Dec 21st, Buchanan’s campaign released this:

Joe Redner lost his bid to sit on the Hillsborough County Commission. But here’s an interesting little note. Of the votes cast in the city limits of Tampa, Redner beat Norman by more than ten percent. Redner, who just LOVES running for local office, will likely be emboldened enough to make a run for Tampa City Council next year.

Grab four of your friends. Make sure you grab one you don’t like too much. Saw your not-so-great friend at chest level. Take the top quarter of your now very angry friend along with one other friend. Send the other two friends home with the half-torso and legs.

What are you left with? A very graphic representation of voter turnout in Hillsborough County for this year’s mid-term elections.

According to unofficial results from the Florida Secretary of State, 45.3% of Hillsborough voters showed up at the polls early or on Tuesday. With the exception of Leon County (Tallahassee) and Pinellas (St. Petersburg), Hillsborough was tops in the state for counties housing Florida’s ten biggest cities.

This turnout could certainly be explained by the fact that half of the candidates for statewide office hailed from the Tampa Bay area.

Then again Hillsborough ranked last in turnout when compared to the other counties in the Bay area. Hillsborough was the only Bay area county to rank below the statewide average of 46.4%.

What does all of this tell us? Probably not a lot.

We do at least stand strong when compared to national voter turnout, which was estimated at 40.4%. That particular statistic may be a symptom of Tampa/St. Pete ranking number one in the nation in political television advertising. That’s a ranking I’m sure most of us could have done without.

Here are the unofficial voter turnout results for Bay area counties (registered voters/turnout = percentage):

• Hernando - 119,604/57,165 = 47.8%
• Hillsborough - 634,037/287,043 = 45.3%
• Manatee - 198,174/100,530 = 50.5%
• Pasco - 263,167/130,058 = 49.4%
• Pinellas - 617,939/294,135 = 47.6%
• Polk - 293,480/142,721 = 48.6%
• Sarasota - 250,497/142,284 = 56.8%

Moving away from Tampa doesn’t necessarily mean the community leaves you. My friend Lexie, a former volunteer reporter at a local community radio station now currently earning her MFA in journalism at BU, has always been a huge Davis supporter. Below is a text message I sent her on election night to keep her updated and the resulting conversation that followed.

D: Nov. 7 10PM  Jim is out

L: Nov. 7 10.03PM  Damn. I’m at the Deval Patrick victory party. It’s all about dems winning here. How bad was it?

D: Nov. 7 10.06PM  53 to 44

L: Nov. 7 10.07PM  Ouch.

D: Nov. 7 10.15PM  He’s not conceding!

D: Nov. 7 10.28PM  In other news, britney files for the big D from KFED.

L: Nov. 8 12.56 PM  So, has Davis conceded now? And who’s going to get the kids, Britney or K Fed?

D: Nov. 8 1.02PM  I can’t find anything on it! Rummy is resigning! She wants the kids.

Thank god for CNN. It’s one stop shopping.

Welcome to your new world.  The good citizens of Hillsborough County have elected republicans in four of the five races for county commission.  Both dailies point out that the bocc gained a republican seat.  Times:  GOP county majority now 6-1, Tribune:  GOP Holds 6 Hillsborough Commission Seats. 

Here is your lineup for the next two years:

• District 1:  Rose Ferlita
• District 2:  Ken Hagan
• District 3:  Kevin White
• District 4:  Al Higgonbotham
• District 5:  Jim Norman
• District 6:  Brian Blair
• District 7:  Mark Sharpe

Congratulations to the winners.  We expect you will do a wonderful job leading your community into the future.

Like I said last night, the following post is in response to a lost bet to Jim. Enjoy:

First of all, congratulations to Charlie Crist for winning the election and getting the opportunity to serve as Governor of the great state of Florida.

How can a progressive put a positive spin on Governor-Elect Crist? I’ve been tossing and turning and came up with this: Charlie Crist isn’t as bad as Jeb.

There. That should do it.

Want more?

Crist is a moderate Republican and can sometimes be counted on to make sense. The Terri Schiavo fiasco would never have happened if he were governor. Regarding abortion rights, Charlie Crist wants to focus on changing minds instead of laws. That’s good news to most of us who want Roe v. Wade upheld as the law of the land.

Crist also supports restoring voting rights for felons and opposes off-shore oil drilling.

Governor Crist won’t ignore progressives the way Jeb has for the past eight years. He can’t, because Republicans aren’t nearly as strong as they used to be. Hopefully this election-year smackdown will temper neocons and lead to a spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation.

There are those on my side of the aisle that warned of a governor who will go along with whatever a right-wing legislature throws his way. I believe Charlie Crist to be open to the progressive message, if said message is supported by the citizens of Florida. That presents a challenge and we must rise to the occasion. For the first time in eight years, we will have a governor who is open to ideas beyond his own. Let’s help him focus on programs and solutions that involve us all.

(I had help seeing the positive side of Charlie Crist. He can’t be all bad with you on his side. Thank you.)

Here’s to hoping we get who we wish for.

Miss Julie, fair receptionist at WMNF, told me this afternoon that listeners had been calling in all day asking her who they should vote for.

Are people really that clueless with all the newspapers and televised debates & radio discussions, local blogs panning and picking candidates? How much more information do people need before they’ll actually pay attention?!

I want to know, mostly, because when I headed out the door on Saturday to vote, I was still in a fog with all the judges and amendments. (Wayne Garcia’s column came in mighty handy in the car on the way there.)

You’d think that by simply being present in the media pile that is my life, I’d have picked up all the knowledge I’d need to vote comfortably at the polls. But as I stood in front of the archaic touch screen voting machine with that ill-prepared butterfly sensation that I haven’t felt since the last time I failed to properly prepare for a test, I understood why so many people don’t come out on election day.

I am a much more sentimental person than I am political. I find the entire campaigning process a wasteful farce, from the amount of money spent on essential advertising to the mudwrestling even the most anti-war candidate does in order to claim their seat.

The past few months have been a real education and I feel I’ve made a huge leap into learning by doing and being and seeing. But I have a long way to go.

I still don’t read the paper every day, though I would love to be able to do that. It’s empowering to have that information in my hands and be able to make decisions backed by a basis of knowledge. But the slacker in me still takes over sometimes and working as a techie on a newscast has become the equivalent of being slipped Cliff’s Notes. I sit back and listen, pick up enough to pass the test not thinking just then about how much I’ll actually retain. Tsk, tsk.

I may not know what’s wrong with the world, but at least I know what’s wrong with me. Getting myself motivated to make self improvements, that’s a whole other blog.

Happy voting!

Tune into 88.5 WMNF from 8-11pm tonight to hear Mitch Perry and Rob Lorei announce the results of the election as they come in. There will also be interviews with the winners & losers as well as national election coverage from Pacifica.