Sumter County Supervisor of Elections, Karen Krauss spoke about preparations under way for the August primary and the November mid-term elections Monday morning before the League of Women Voters of The Villages/Tri-County.
Krauss, her assistant Supervisor of Elections, Karen Rushing, and her deputy, Terri Mertz , feel strongly about everyone getting out to vote. They are very pro-active with their outreach, and like to be invited to clubs and gathering places to tell everyone how important their vote is to the future of our country.
“The best way to make our country better,” Krauss said, “is to create a better future through voting — through our words and our actions.”
She said no one had expected the big voter turnout of 2012.
“And the system didn’t work as well as we would have liked. We are all sharing ideas and working diligently to make sure that doesn’t happen again. We have added a new precinct, but we are still building 500 new homes a month near the new Eisenhower Rec Center in The Villages, which is keeping our staff really busy,” she said.
“We used to have people come to a teeny tiny room at the Belvedere Library to vote — we had over 1,000 people per day. The library is being expanded now, and we will not use it this year. We will be adding the Allamanda and Laurel Manor Rec Centers as polling places for 2014. Some rec centers are government buildings, and some are not. Some are owned by The Villages Community Development Districts (CDDs), so we can use them.
According to Krauss, there were about 80,000 voters in Sumter County, and about 10 percent of those voted by mail (absentee ballot). “More than half took advantage of early voting, and we would like to promote that and see even more people do that in the future,” Krauss said. “Sumter County is among the highest users of the early voting privilege in the state of Florida.”
In answer to an audience query, Krauss said they spend about the same amount of money for an election, regardless of whether there are many unchallenged candidates or not. “No matter how many names are on the ballot, we have to go through all the same procedures ordered by the state,” she said. She was not certain at this moment exactly how much is expended on the election process because every year is different.
“We are putting out more equipment and adding more poll workers to handle the crowds more effectively for this primary and general election,” Krauss promised, “and we will do so also for the presidential election in 2016. We will have ‘tablet people’ working as many polls as possible — people with tablet computers and cell phones who will work the lines and take care of people who have name or address changes or need to call our headquarters for Spanish language translators, so everything will be in order before they get to the registration tables. This has worked in other counties, so we will be doing it here.”
“Years ago when I first started,” Krauss said, “our population was much smaller. Almost everyone knew everybody else, including the candidates. We had candidate debates on the issues, but of course there are too many people for that to work today.” The League of Women Voters intends to contact various local candidates and publish brief bios to help inform voters so they can make intelligent choices about who they will be supporting.
A flyer issued by the Sumter County Board of Elections asks for residents’ patience if there are waiting lines during early election days. It saves time when voters have their photo and signature I.D. cards ready for quick inspection. Acceptable forms of identification include a Florida driver’s license or Florida I.D. card issued by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles; a U.S. passport, a debit or credit card; military, student or public assistance I.D., a retirement center or neighborhood association I.D.
There will be eight early voting days for the Florida primary: Aug. 16-23 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Early voting will take place at five locations: The Supervisor of Elections office on North Main Street in Bushnell; on Powell Road in Wildwood and at The Villages Government Annex Building on CR 466 near Morse Boulevard. The Laurel Manor Recreation Center on County Road 466 and the Allamanda Recreation Center on St. Charles Place in The Villages will also be open for this purpose.
Sumter County transit will provide transportation free of charge on week days during the early voting time and also on election day. Citizens must call for this service at least three days before going to vote: 568-MOVE (6683).
For the general election, 12 days will be devoted to early voting (Oct. 21 – Nov. 1, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). On Election Day, Nov. 4, voting will ONLY take place at 29 designated precincts from 7 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. It is important to remember: early voting sites will NOT be open on Election Day, Nov. 4
For additional information, please call the Supervisor of Elections office at 352 569-1540. www.sumterelections.org.
The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization which neither endorses or opposes any political party or candidate. Membership is open to women and men age eighteen and over. For more information, contact Kathy at 350-7317 or visit lwvtri.org.