Last minute Election Day thoughts about voting in Hallandale Beach, and the frustrating things I've seen there recently; Vote for common sense and experience: Maggie Ivanovski in Seat 3 Commission race

For you newcomers to the blog, a little recent history about the normal laws about political campaigning were routinely ignored, with photos that show it for all to see: 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">2/ See the contemporaneous Twitter thread of the time connecting-the-dots to then-<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HallandaleBeach?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HallandaleBeach</a> Comm. Sanders via photos + letters: <a href="https://t.co/jazEfak8bB">https://t.co/jazEfak8bB</a>,<br>and, the self-evident proof that both the <a href="https://twitter.com/MYHBeach?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MYHBeach</a> City Mgr. and <a href="https://twitter.com/BrowardIG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BrowardIG</a> ignored. 😒🙄🤨😠<a href="https://t.co/HGegEwgNBX">https://t.co/HGegEwgNBX</a> <a href="https://t.co/4d6zIxcWLU">pic.twitter.com/4d6zIxcWLU</a></p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1322202177159503873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/politicofl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@politicofl</a> The spot-on <a href="https://twitter.com/NickNehamas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NickNehamas</a> + <a href="https://twitter.com/Blaskey_S?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Blaskey_S</a> followup re fake website: Prof. Hill <a href="https://twitter.com/MiamiLawSchool?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MiamiLawSchool</a>: &quot;the website appeared to violate state election laws that require political communications to disclose who paid for them...“ <br><br>Time to investigate! 🔍🔍<a href="https://t.co/IQsziAheeE">https://t.co/IQsziAheeE</a> <a href="https://t.co/8w7LdcwSG5">pic.twitter.com/8w7LdcwSG5</a></p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1322022500042182659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The tumult of a nation divided by politics is spilling into the voting lines <a href="https://t.co/yoxmwvs550">https://t.co/yoxmwvs550</a></p>&mdash; Susannah Bryan (@Susannah_Bryan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Susannah_Bryan/status/1322972424921645057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yakubovich has been INVISIBLE in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HallandaleBeach?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HallandaleBeach</a> public policy but aims to use being President of 1 of 3 BeachClub condo towers on beach to his advantage. My nickname for him = Boris BadEnough, since his bellicose threats @ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EarlyVoting?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EarlyVoting</a> is both clownish yet VERY off-putting.</p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1322995262781071361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">When ppl said Yakubovich = a bully, I thought maybe he was just... headstrong. Nope! Late Sat. afternoon I heard him &#39;joking&#39; w/pals that bec he has support of HBPD union, he wld have ppl who disagreed w/him or called him a liar arrested. Who&#39;d be dumb enough to say that ALOUD?🤨 <a href="https://t.co/g8CJD2Ffjl">pic.twitter.com/g8CJD2Ffjl</a></p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1323006641931980804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/MYHBeach?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MYHBeach</a> Do you think that for once, on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElectionDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ElectionDay</a> night, bec polls close @ 7 pm, city cld actually make sure the street lights near <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HallandaleBeach?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HallandaleBeach</a> Cultural Center, as well as HBCC&#39;s parking lot lights, are WORKING B4 it gets dark? Always been pitch black conditions in past!</p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1323011174397562883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/EdMorrissey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EdMorrissey</a> Your multiple criticisms of ineffective <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Dem?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Dem</a> efforts in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MiamiDade?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MiamiDade</a> = 100% correct. <br>Which suggests this <a href="https://twitter.com/NewYorker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NewYorker</a> article shld have come out 1 yr ago, no?<br><br>How Latino Grassroots Organizers Are Fighting to Lift <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Biden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Biden</a> in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Florida?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Florida</a> <a href="https://t.co/WLZyy05xkg">https://t.co/WLZyy05xkg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/kausmickey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kausmickey</a></p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1323015435571396611?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Another short reminder why I'm endorsing civic activist Maggie Ivanovski and encouraging you to vote for her for the Hallandale Beach City Commission, Seat 4.

Over a few visits to the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center last week where Early Voting was taking place, I saw for myself that the level of discord, animosity + PERSONAL THREATS was FAR WORSE than anything I've seen there in 15 years of being there for several hours a day.

Which supported all the things that i was hearing from people via emails and phone calls, that, to be fair, were anecdotal.

But when everyone keeps saying the samer thing, almost verbatim, maybe it's what's really happening, no?

Unfortunately, what I saw on the ground last week only confirmed what I'd been hearing -very egregious boarish behavior was the norm once you got anywhere near the HB Cultural Center parking lot or the one nearby at the closed Broward County Library, and the antagonists, well, again, no surprise.

Supporters of Joy Cooper, Annabelle Lima-Taub, and her her bellicose and boarish puppet, Dmitriy Yakubovich. He's got HUGE sense of entitlement!

Yakubovich has been an INVISIBLE presence in Hallandale Beach public policy at HB City Hall or in the larger community since he has been here, but it's very clear that he aims to use being President of one of the 3 BeachClub condo towers on beach to his advantage. 

My nickname for him after reading his material, what's been written abioyt him by others and then seeing him prowl the road between the Library and Cultural Center is Boris BadEnough, since his bellicose, loud-mouthed threats at Early Voting were both clownish yet VERY off-putting.

To be honest, I put all the early negative comments I heard by people I respect in Hallandale Beach re Yakubovich's bellicosity and preening sense of entitlement as, well, smoke. 

But then I saw him in action twice last week.

It's fair to say that when it comes to him, where there's smoke, there's a real fire.

When people said Yakubovich acted like a Russian bully, I thought maybe he was just... headstrong. Nope! 

Late Saturday afternoon I was near enough to Yakubovich to hear him 'joking' with some of his friends and supporters and some name personalities that because he had the support of the Hallandale Beach Police, i.e. their union, he would have people who disagreed with him or who called him a liar arrested. 

Honestly, who would be dumb enough to say that ALOUD in public?

And would you vote for them?

It takes all kinds, but Yakubovich is clearly someone who would not be the sort of positive change agent that HB City Hall desperately needs right now.

In the Group 3 Hallandale Beach City Commission race, you don't need to choose between the lesser of two evils... you can vote for the candidate with the experience of being a common sense, pro-citizen advocate at Hallandale Beach for longer than all of her opponents combined: Maggie Ivanovski.

Or, as I wrote last week:

https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2020/10/hallandale-beachs-sleazy-unethical.html  

Dave

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/ 

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/ 

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

Travel Massive: https://travelmassive.com/dbsmith

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog   

Contradictions! If Hallandale Beach's budget can nearly double in 6-8 years under Joy Cooper, with little tangible to show for it for taxpayers, why can't taxpayers at least have city employees who earn their salaries thru diligence, performance and attention to detail -instead of none of those? Like having a safe, well-lit area for Early Voters outside the city's Cultural Center for the first day of an event that's been known for SEVERAL MONTHS?; @MayorCooper

Butler1Mike YouTube Channel video: Hallandale Beach Mayor Cooper contradicts herself, saying that she didn't vote for the city's overly-generous pension plan in 2001 that lasted for many years, but then defends the pension plan that the city had that has (or will) make multi-millionaires out of several employees, including three former City Managers, as entirely appropriate for a city so small. Yes, here as she has so many times over the nine years that she has been mayor, Joy Cooper shows herself to be one enormous ball of contradictions, which is why there is never an intersection of logic and reason and genuine taxpayer accountability in her city. Just her doing whatever she wanted, saying whatever she wanted, and flying by the seat of your pants! Uploaded October 31, 2012. http://youtu.be/xhlnEezjZGU
http://www.youtube.com/user/Butler1Mike


No Broward city let's you down more consistently and more predictably when it comes to attention to detail than...

For those of you who were there last Saturday morning at 6:45 a.m. like me, how awesome was it to see all the hustle-and-bustle and nervous energy of so many voters, candidates and their friends milling around the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center, the only site in the city for Early Voting, and just as about any of us could've predicted, about half of the city's parking lot lights and safety lights around the Center were NOT working.

When it was near pitch-black.

Just like last week, last month and last year.

Just like 2008's Early Voting!

Like it always is!

All October 27, 2012 photos below by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

The light above in the foreground is from my camera's flash, otherwise none of the signs would be legible to you.

Again, without my flash, you'd see no shadowy figure crossing at the designated place. You know, without lights that actually work, those security cameras aren't nearly as effective.
Looks like the lights on the access route from S.E. 3rd Street were out, of course!
Not that the police or the police chief who drive on it constantly ever notice and do something about it. 
Nope!

Yes, you'd never know by the appearance of so very much neglected maintenance that the city's Police Dept. HQ was just steps away, given how very lax the city has been for so many years about basic safety and common sense and liability issues.

"Liability," what's that?

If you're like me, how funny was it to see the myriad candidates and their devoted friends and family members handing-out their campaign palm cards to voters lined-up on a median strip in the parking lot, south of the Cultural Center -and outside of the "no campaigning zone"- waiting patiently for a Broward Supervisor of Elections official to come out and have the first few people come inside to exercise their right to vote, and yet the folks at the end of the line could NOT even read the palm cards they were handed because they were so far from a working light and it was so very dark?

Yes, good times, indeed!

What could be better than lots of senior citizens parking and walking around in poorly-lit parking lots early in the morning? What could possibly go wrong? 

So, do you see all the dozens of Early Voters lined-up at 6:57 a.m.?

Who needs city Dept. heads and employees who actually show a little foresight once in a while, and who earn their salary thru hard work and attention to detail, when you can, instead, have SO MANY of the sort that we seem to have been blessed with here in Hallandale Beach?

Government employees who have a larger sense of entitlement -and a seeming chip-on-their-shoulders- than would seem normal based on the constant sub-par look of the city, both aesthetically and maintenance-wise.

City employees who, for whatever reason, perhaps tradition, think that their performance is NOT Job One, but rather an abstract idea that they never have to actually reach, just pretend to aspire to at Dept. meetings.

After all, if we've learned anything in nine years of living here, it's that there are absolutely no consequences to employees' continued poor performance or chronic bad attitude or perpetual surliness to taxpayers, the real bosses, of course.

(I sometimes wonder what it's like in the cities where all those City of HB employees live, since so few Dept. heads and regular employees actually live here, otherwise perhaps they'd take more pride in their job. Clearly, not, though.)

Yes, the fact that it's been known for several months now that this location would be the City of Hallandale Beach's ONLY site for Early Voting made it entirely predictable that on the first day, many voters would think they'd beat the rush by showing-up to vote first thing at 7 a.m.

And for those of you reading this far from these shores, yes, even here in sunny South Florida, at this time of the year, it's very dark at 6:45 in the morning.

Of course, most of these voters, unlike most of us who regularly attend civic meetings or City Commission meetings at or around Hallandale Beach City Hall, and thus, who already know how bad things are safety-wise around City Hall and Bluesten Park two blocks away when the sun is NOT out, could't have planned for how very poorly prepared the city was.

I guess it was a good thing, after all, that there were no surprise guests from the Romney-Ryan team showing-up as some had been saying via the grapevine and some emails I received the night before, since even with the TV camera lights, with so many city lights out, it would've been hard to do anything that would've looked good on TV, either LIVE or recorded for airing later in the day.

Yes, I'd gone there early that morning after getting no sleep overnight to lend some encouragement to some friends who are running for office as pro-reform candidates -Keith London for mayor, and Csaba Kulin, Michele Lazarow and Gerald Dean for City Commission- observe a bit and and snap some photos and video of the activities.

But instead, even while doing those things, I walked into what was yet another discouraging reminder of how poorly-run this city has been under Mayor Cooper the past nine years, and how consistently poor performance has no consequences for employees, no matter who they are or how much money they make.

Changing that pernicious culture of entitlement, bad attitudes and sleepwalking performance at HB City Hall, of making sure that Hallandale Beach taxpayers REALLY DO receive a dollar's worth of work and services for a dollar's worth of taxes, and, finally having real consequences for city employees who are NOT performing up to the public's expectations, no matter who they are, is why I'm voting the way I am on Tuesday.

If you live here and really care about what sort of future this city will have, of what kind of quality of life you and your family can enjoy, I strongly suggest you do the same.

Vote London, Kulin, Lazarow & Dean, YES for City Charter Question #5, and NO to all the other HB Charter questions.

It's now five days and counting 'till the day you can finally reclaim your city back from the very people who have taken you and your neighbors for granted, have constantly tried to squelch your rights whenever they could, and who have made an art of wasting your tax dollars in ways that would be laughable if they weren't so painful and expensive.

There are four candidates in this city who have stood-up when it counted -including right now.
You already know their names - I just said them

Not perfect people, of course, but people much like yourself who genuinely care about this city's future, and who fervently believe that this city's residents deserve -at a minimum- to be properly respected once again by a Mayor and City Commission that doesn't continually embarrass them thru their repeated poor judgment and ethical lapses.
Imagine that?

Actually represented by a Mayor and City Commission with some genuine integrity, and represented by people who are properly-prepared for public meetings, and who aren't afraid of the hard work and heavy-lifting that will surely be required to get this city out of its current slide into irrelevancy.

You've said for years that you wanted honest and hard-working people in charge at City Hall who would fight for real reform and financial accountability, and finally clean-up this city's poor image.
Well, now it's up to you to actually show-up and vote for it and the candidates who will make it a reality.

What sort of city do you want to wake-up to next Wednesday morning?
THAT'S the question you as a voter have to answer positively when you get the chance.

http://kulin2012.com/

http://michelelazarow.com/

http://keithlondon.com/

Deadline for requesting Absentee Ballot from Broward County Supervisor of Election's office is Wednesday at 5 p.m. -unless you want to drive to Lauderhill and pick it up!

Within the past hour, I sent the following information as part of a larger email about another subject altogether, to a LOT of people around Broward County.

I'm posting it now instead of that larger email on the chance that it might do some voters and candidates some good, because thus far, I have heard nobody mention it anywhere.

Some deadlines really are deadlines!

-----

Because I've been receiving so many emails from local, county and state candidates everyday, as well as ones from the various constitutional ballot issues, this morning I decided to contact someone I know at the Broward Supervisor of Elections to get the official line about what they were telling voters calling in to their "request" line, about what  the deadline was, since the emails and mailers I receive never mention the deadline. 

Yes, you'd think it would be obvious.

As Election Day gets closer, the window for the public to request absentee ballots and have them received in time to mail back or drop-off at polling stations gets smaller and smaller.

Yet the person I know at SOE told me that some people actually think that they can call on Friday morning and still get an absentee ballot in time, which is crazy, but par for the course.

I was told that they are telling the public that absentee ballot requests must be made by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, otherwise, voters have to drive up to their Lauderhill facility to get one in-person.

Obviously, if people are already trying to avoid going somewhere in their own city to begin with, you'd think that the prospect of having to drive to Lauderhill to get a ballot would dissuade people from waiting and cause them to vote Early if they were really concerned about long lines on Election Day, but then you almost never lose by underestimating the apathy level of the majority of South Florida residents...

I was told that they are telling the public that requests must be made by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, otherwise, voters have to drive up to their Lauderhill facility to get one in-person

Broward County Absentee Ballot Requests - (954) 357-7055

REMINDER: Voted absentee ballots MUST be received by the SOE's office no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day. 

They can NOT be accepted at polling locations!

If you requested an absentee ballot and later decide to VOTE AT THE POLLS, take your absentee ballot with you to be cancelled at your polling place.

Oh, no, this type of thing could never ever happen in Hallandale Beach!

Poll workers call 911 on Volusia County candidate's mom

Caller tells authorities woman was starting 'a riot'

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Poll-workers-call-911-on-Volusia-County-candidate-s-mom/-/1637132/17182802/-/e3kcy6/-/index.html

Cold Reality of the Sunshine State: Romney has won 2 small states whose total # of votes cast were less than # of absentee ballots requested in Florida -for an election in 3 weeks!; Romney's glass jaw

Newt Gingrich 2012 campaign video: On Bain Capital: It's a Question of Character, Not Capitalism. January 11, 2012. http://youtu.be/yV6qUI5-ij4


Above, audio of Newt Gingrich's appearance this afternoon on Sean Hannity's nationally-syndicated radio show, where he discussed Mitt Romney's track record with Bain Capital. He's rightly frustrated and at pains to explain the subtle yet important distinction of his having asked hard questions and demanded answers about what Romney actually did for the company, not Gingrich's questioning of the free enterprise system.


Unfortunately, among others, the Mainstream Media's punditocracy of the Left and the Right seem perfectly willing to ignore the clear distinction. 


Even worse for well-informed voters who want someone who will really take the fight to President Obama and make him the focal point of the campaign, that large group ignoring the distinction also includes the sycophantic Republican Party 'Establishment' based in the Beltway and in the state capitols, who favor political coronations, not hard-fought floor fights on public policy issues.


(To figure out who these particular GOP characters are, just picture John Sununu and his small-minded ilk taking up space in the Bush 41 White House, James Baker's State Dept., and carious agencies. Then, think of their many, many younger Gray Flannel suit-wearing underlings, who since then have either made it to Congress or became prominent in D.C. not by solving problems creatively, but rather by promising to finesse people they already know in exchange for money. Yes, lots and lots of smart but philosophically weak and outside-the-box averse guys. As it happens, to be honest, often the type of guys my then-girlfriends had broken-up with in order to be with me. 
The sort of well-educated but oblivious people who in the early Nineties often seemed more afraid of the fact that their whole worldview had been tossed upside-down by the fall of the Berlin Wall, and who DIDN'T want to recognize the bravery of the people in Eastern Europe and reward it by recognizing their independence, but who preferred instead that it stay in the Soviet sphere because that way they didn't have to think about it. 
Brent Scowcroft-types. 
These are THE people whom I most loathed of any I dealt with in the 15 years I lived and worked in Washington. And there are still lots of them who haven't learned a single lesson in twenty years.)


It's the same reason that the GOP establishment was so deathly afraid of the armies of retired accountants, military vets, college students and Libertarian-oriented school teachers interested in financial solvency in Washington who were the vanguard of the Tea Party movement -there was nothing they could offer to appease them.
They didn't want something in return, they wanted concrete results in Congress.


Romney's hyper-sensitive and completely calculated "How dare you criticize free enterprise..." response to Gingrich's probing questions, when that's NOT what's at issue, is also mentioned as part of the larger problem with Romney.


Not just that he is thin-skinned regarding constructive criticism of his own record, per se, but as many surmise, Romney's chiseled jaw is, in fact, a glass jaw.
One that Obama's minions will start jabbing and punching at long before the GOP convention if Romney wins.
Think Chuck Wepner in the 1975 Ali fight.


In short, Romney is being criticized on the specifics of what HE did in specific situations when he was in charge. 
Period. 


His ability -or inability- to make principled decisions and stick by them is exactly what's being criticized, and his own track record, post-Salt Lake City Olympics, is why that is such a mother lode.   




Newt Gingrich 2012 campaign video: For the dogs. January 11, 2012.
http://youtu.be/x-4bm5NxqPY


Cold Reality of the Sunshine State: Mitt Romney has won two small states whose total # of votes cast were less than the # of absentee ballots already requested by voters in Florida... for an election three weeks from last night.


I had actually heard speculation about the way these numbers would probably sort themselves out last week -ironically, while I was on my way to the Supervisor of Elections office in Broward County HQ's in Ft. Lauderdale- but nothing has changed to make them inaccurate.


If anything, the contrast in numbers will only get exponentially larger, something that national reporters, columnists and anchors will find themselves unable to resist mentioning -over and over again- when Romney supporters crow about what sort of "mandate" they have.
Just saying...


Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Political Pulse blog 
RPOF: Florida absentee ballot requests now more than Iowa, NH vote totals 
2012 Florida presidential primary, 2012 presidential election — posted by scottpowers on January, 10 2012 11:17 AM

Absentee ballot requests in Florida now are double the total sought for the 2008 presidential primary and are more than all the votes cast in

Iowa and expected today in New Hampshire.
That’s the word from the Republican Party of Florida, which argues there is no voter enthusiasm gap this year.

Read the rest of the post at: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2012/01/rpof-florida-absentee-ballot-requests-now-more-than-iowa-nh-vote-totals.html


-----
http://www.newt.org/


http://www.youtube.com/user/ngingrich

Florida 2012 GOP Presidential primary -deadline is Tuesday in Broward County to register to vote or change your party affiliation to Republican

Florida 2012 GOP Presidential primary -deadline is Tuesday in Broward County to register to vote or change your party affiliation to Republican

Just a reminder to those of you living in Broward County who want to vote in the January 31st Florida GOP Presidential primary, this Tuesday is the last day to:

a.) register to vote if you aren't already registered, and

b.) legally change your party affiliation from Democratic or Other to Republican in order that you can participate in the official culling of candidates.

Last Tuesday, I spoke to a very friendly and helpful woman at the Broward Supervisor of Elections' HQ on Andrews Avenue so that I could mention it amongst some other 2012 Political Odds & Ends I planned to cobble together in a post, but some more-pressing and upsetting news here at HBB -that I'll mention soon- prevented me from being able to get that information online in the middle of the week, when it would've done more good.

I'm told that you'll be sent a new voter ID card within 2-3 weeks, but as long as you take care of everything before the three separate Broward SOE facilities below that are open to doing the above close on Tuesday, the next day they'll be open, you'll be fine come Primary Day. 

Note that the facility in Pompano Beach is open until 6 p.m.

See also:

Helpful Checklist on How to Be Prepared for the Presidential Preference Primary Election

http://www.browardsoe.org/PressRelease.aspx?id=132

Broward County Supervisor of Elections' Office 

Main Office

115 S. Andrews Avenue., Room 102,

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Monday-Friday  Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Voting Equipment Center

1501 N.W. 40th Avenue

Lauderhill, FL 33313

Monday-Friday  Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

E. Pat Larkins Center

520 N.W. 3rd Street

Pompano Beach, FL 33060

Tuesday & Thursday  Hours: 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

http://www.browardsoe.org/

(954) 357-7050

Florida's so-called controversial new election laws have a cheap and satisfactory solution in plain sight that can't be licked; aloof Florida news media STILL rankles

Barbara Jordan, one of the 2011 U.S.P.S. Black Heritage series stamps.
Speaking of the Senate Watergate Committee as I do below, and the House Judiciary Committee that considered Articles of Impeachment against President Nixon, Jordan was a strong voice for reason & logic on that Committee.  


Below for your perusal is an expanded version of the email that I sent on Tuesday to veteran Florida news reporter Steve Bousquet, a former reporter at WLPG-TV/Channel 10 here in Miami, a 17-year veteran at the Miami Herald, including head of the Tallahassee bureau, and more recently, the Capital Bureau Chief for the St. Petersburg Times. 


He's one of the most-knowledgeable and influential reporters in the Sunshine State, in large part, not just because he remembers people, places and things that others have forgotten -to their peril, as well as to that of their readers/viewers- treats people well, and is very approachable.



Since I returned to South Florida from the Washington, D.C. area in late 2003 after 15 years up there, I've sent Bousquet, literally, dozens of emails with pithy comments, assorted head's-ups about shenanigans I've seen and heard about, as well as notes and articles from other news sources that dealt with subjects he's written about. 
He's responded enough times to satisfy me and seem reasonable, something which can NOT be said is true of 99% of the reporters in Florida who don't know one-tenth of what Steve Bousquet knows.


They don't respond to much of anything, despite whatever their various news organizations may claim on their websites.
In Florida, my personal experience is that the news media, whether print or electronic, is usually as unresponsive if not more so than the local, county and state government they often criticize for secrecy and lack of accountability. 


I and many of my friends who are civic activists in Florida -or bloggers- know that with a degree of certainty that most readers/viewers would be shocked to know.
Especially who some of the worst offenders are.


For those readers/viewers in the dark, though, the logical consequence of that attitude and unwillingness to have a two-way street is, of course, the reason so much of what these days passes for journalism in this state is SO consistently sub-par,  thoroughly unsatisfactory and sometimes worse than doing nothing at all.


In my opinion, there is more bad reporting, biased reporting and factually-inaccurate reporting going on in South Florida than there has ever been since my family moved here in 1968. 

I've expanded the original email to include things that I edited out due to length and to make some points clear for readers.

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Steve: 


I think it's very odd that your article today about Dawn Quarles and the state's new voter registration laws... is so sympathetic to her, despite her past history of being either absent-minded (good case) or passive aggressive (worst case).


And seriously, that headline the newspaper's editors chose doesn't do anyone any favors!
Civic-minded teacher snared by new election law http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/civic-minded-teacher-snared-by-new-election-law/1205958


For whatever reason, you choose NOT to quote any of Ms. Quarles' students who put their trust in her -or their parents- people whom I believe she let down by refusing to follow very simple rules.
If I was either a student of her's or a parent of one, I'd be livid.
And if I was the school principal...
Why no comments or quotes from any of them?
It seems counter-intuitive.


I'm someone who registered to vote the day they turned 18 in February of 1979, when the Dade League of Women Voters had a small table near the front of the cafeteria at NMB High School during lunch period, and who had a long-haired, mustachioed FSU grad of a Social Studies teacher at JFK Junior High, Henry Siegendorf, who was the brother of a then-Dade County judge -Arden Siegendorf- and someone whom civic involvement was very important to.


Because of his friendly demeanor, quick intelligence and rather common sense belief that he needed to cultivate our interests while teaching us valuable lessons about how society worked in reality, Mr. Siegendorf was a very popular teacher, and not surprisingly, the object of occasional envious grumbling from other JFK teachers, for whom strictly teaching by rote from the lesson plan was the way to go.
Talk about old -school!


Mr. Siegendorf let us watch the Watergate hearings on TV during portions of class, but unlike teachers who use TVs as babysitters, he required all of us to pay close attention to detail and facts, and not accept either the press' Conventional Wisdom on the story or the take of the members of the Senate Watergate Committee. 
To drive this point home, he liked to ask questions to test who was and wasn't paying attention to the drama taking place before us on the small tube.


Neither cynical nor a push-over, he also strongly discouraged his students from overly romanticizing the roles of either Sen. Howard Baker, Sen. Sam Ervin, or the two-headed journalism tag-team of Woodward and Bernstein. Why?
Because people will let you down -a smart precursor to Reagan's "Trust but verified" that I took to heart then and keep in mind always.


As to AP teacher Quarles, who from your article seems to imagine that her good intentions could not possibly be criticized, the very idea that some third-party, much less, a public school teacher, could, if they chose, intentionally take advantage of others in a dependent position by NOT complying with simple rules and laws, much less, foolishly think they were above punishment, is precisely why the new laws makes sense to me.


In this case, it seems to me that you have to punish her to set an example, to drive home the point that nobody-but-nobody is above the law when it comes to someone's right to vote.
Frankly, it almost seems to me as if the teacher did this intentionally to set up a lawsuit of some sort.


A Florida version of the Scopes Monkey Trial, since as I'm sure you know, the Tennessee teacher involved in that case almost 100 years ago intentionally did what they did so as to give the ACLU a legal pretext to get involved in the case and test the law about teaching evolution.
The teacher was NOT an innocent victim, as many believe to be the case, so much as a willing sacrifice or victim for the cause.

The ACLU did a variation of forum-shopping, looking to find the perfect set of circumstances and environment where could write a narrative that would expose the law to ridicule and have a clean-cut plaintiff who was worthy of public support.

Generally speaking, I'm always in favor of eliminating the idiot-factor by dumbing the rules down to the point where anyone, even school teachers, should be able to follow it.
And yet... some choose to do otherwise.


(In the case of the new election laws, the League of Women Voters is on the wrong side, and their disconnect to other public policy issues is becoming increasingly apparent to me here in Broward County, where they did zero in the way of public education or outreach before the recent state redistricting meetings -in Davie!- as I wrote on the blog at the time.
The Fair Districts people REALLY dropped the ball even more than the LWV.


Though I publicly supported them and wrote many posts with info on the subject, the Fair Districts NEVER responded to any of several emails of mine or those of friends imploring them to host or co-host such forums.
Just like the LWV, whose top people in Broward I contacted, with nothing to show for it.
In the case of Fair Districts, they totally ignored us even while they kept sending us fundraising appeal emails.)


Why is it that so many traditional liberal groups that, for almost every other issue, always play the (latent) conspiracy card, and say that you can't trust others intent or requirement to follow the law, NOW, are so suddenly willing to let others decide whether or not THEY will comply with the law and turn in YOUR registration paperwork, so it's properly processed so YOU are not disenfranchised.


As to the Early Voting changes, it's the 21st Century, and first-class stamp solves all the problems, including the ban on Early Voting on the Sunday before the election, with marches to the polls that lots of African-American churches are reported to have done regularly, though when did you actually ever see it mentioned in the Miami Herald or on local Miami TV newscasts if it was so common?


In any case, using stamps reduces the costs of govt. personnel, too, which is not an unimportant consideration given the FACT that so few people actually used the opportunity to vote in person early that first week of the old two week period.


But it's clear that at least some of the the groups complaining about the new laws want it to be a problem so they have something to argue about, like the national Democrats have done since the early '80's with Medicare and Social Security -create an issue to scare seniors with.



Rep. Barbara Jordan of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on the historical significance and meaning of Impeachment within the U.S. Constitution, and the task at hand for the committee; two weeks later, President Nixon resigned. July 25, 1974  http://youtu.be/CDcYiyF5eLc


The answer to the complaints about changing Early Voting is to go turbo and make Florida the largest state in the country to have ALL elections -primaries, general elections and special elections- done by mail.
Voting by Mail makes more sense than ever.


No more money wasted by political parties or candidates on GOTV.
If the parties or candidates want to spend that money dispensing first class stamps instead of providing free transportation to the polls, great, but otherwise, the new laws are very practical.


By the way, I'm sure I'm not telling you something you don't already hear dozens of times a week, but over the past few months, The Buzz blog's reader comments has quickly descended to Lowest Common Denominator territory, and become a hangout for what seem to be chronic ideologues.


As someone who has commented there maybe six times this year, I'd almost prefer that you didn't allow comments, because the sensible comments are SO overwhelmed by the armies of agit-prop/chaff.



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http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/


http://www.tampabay.com/writers/steve-bousquet


http://twitter.com/stevebousquet


Tex Parte blog of Texas Lawyer magazine
Barbara Jordan is the 2011 Black Heritage stamp honoree
http://texaslawyer.typepad.com/texas_lawyer_blog/2011/01/barbara-jordan-is-the-2011-black-heritage-stamp-honoree.html


http://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2011/pb22318/html/info_008.htm