As if last year’s blow to Sarasota’s election integrity — found in the August 15th 2006 letter from ES&S (Election Systems & Software) that was received but not disclosed to the public by the local Office of Elections — wasn’t enough, this year we have an entire Senate race missing from the absentee ballots mailed to some Sarasota County voters. Even though the number of erroneous ballots was relatively small and action was taken to rectify the situation, this recent blunder by Kathy Dent’s office — which again, was not made public by that office — rips the scab off the wound of the 2006 Jennings/Buchanan voting scandal.
The 2006 ES&S letter warned of problems that could delay the recording of votes, resulting — at the very least — in voter confusion at the polls. By choosing to not disclose this letter to the public — by not informing the public of possible voting machine malfunction in the days leading up to the most contentious race in recent local history — Kathy Dent left a dent of her own … in our democratic process.
And what about her unfathomable decision to NOT post the polling booth posters recommended by ES&S to warn the public of potential problems they might encounter when using the faulty voting machines?
And then what about the Office of Election’s inexplicable silence that offered no word of the ES&S letter in the months following the massive election snafu that left 18,000 votes unaccounted for? – despite the loud and urgent outcry for any relevant information that might help make sense of the situation?
Even if the problem warned of by ES&S was not the cause of the undervote, why hide or ignore the fact that the letter existed?
Every decision along the way, Dent left her mark — a series of dents in the democratic process. Get too many dents and dings in a car and everybody views it as a lemon — they don’t want to buy something that looks like it’s falling apart, like it’s unreliable, like it can’t be trusted to convey you half-way across the street, much less carry you safely and surely all the way to Election 2008.
But now here we are again, two years later, more mistakes and poor judgment, and Dent is running for her office again.
I’ve driven enough clunkers in my lifetime to know there’s only one way to get rid of a dent — you pound it out. Fortunately, here in Sarasota, we’ve got another option to get rid of the Dent in our democracy — we can vote her out.
Um, that is, if we’re lucky and the voting machines don’t go all 2006 on us again.
I recommend a vote for Barry Sullivan — Democrat — for Supervisor of Elections.