Broward County Ballot 2008 Archive

Simply put - wanted to thank all of my readers who have written me and commented on the posts for this election. To make it easier to find answers to your questions, I wanted to provide a link to all of the posts for your information.

Broward County Charter Initiatives

Broward County Charter Initiatives - details on the changes to the Broward County Charter

Florida Constitutional Amendments

Florida Amendments - details on the proposed changes to the Florida Constitution

Elected Officials

Elected Officials - summary of the Presidential Election, for Florida Congressional District 19 and the Broward Sheriff

Oliver Parker vs Fred Segal

Oliver Parker vs Fred Segal - information on the Broward County Soil and Water Conservation District, Seat 3

This has been one of the more popular posts - especially since both candidates decided not to campaign for this seat. I was able to get Mr. Segal to respond, but I have yet to hear from Mr. Parker.

Christine Jennings vs Vern Buchanan

Christine Jennings vs Vern Buchanan - information on the Florida Congressional District 13 race in Sarasota, Florida.

Update November 5th at noon: Congratulations to Sheriff Lamberti on his successful win (at least as far as I know today).  As for Mr. Parker, congratulations - and I sincerely hope you leverage Mr. Segal to help Broward County.  He is a good man and can be of great service to the community.

So - after a blog comment expressing a familiar refrain of frustration on who are Oliver Parker and Fred Segal, I decided to dial some of my contacts and look into reaching out to the two candidates for the position of Broward County Soil and Water Conservation District 3.

What I discovered is interesting - the position, which is a county-wide position, is an unpaid position, and focused on the environment, land use and preservation and supporting the agricultural needs of the county. It turns out that this seat is a very obscure position - the Broward Supervisor of Elections even left it off the sample ballot when mailed out before the election. The Board of Supervisors meetings discussing the issues of the District, and the two candidates have interesting backgrounds. Below, I provide you with information on the two men - one from an interview I had over the phone, and one from what limited knowledge I have learned about him on the web. I have left a phone message with Mr. Parker and am waiting for replies/photos from both men.

Fred Segal, current incumbent

Mr. Segal is the incumbent in the seat, and had been appointed to fill a vacancy in the District back in June 2008. He said that he was appointed to the seat because he normally attended the Board of Supervisors meetings for over three years and is involved with many orgs on environment, water, etc - and the roles are important.
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One of the most amazing things that happened this past week was my own frustration on trying to vote ont he Broward County ballot and then discovering how much content was missing.  Simply put - being an informed voter is not easy at all this year.  

Yes, our attention has been super-glued to the media and robocalls and volunteer efforts to bring out the vote by the Presidential campaigns - which means that supporters from both parties are going to be driven to the polls. The Presidential pick and the Congressional picks are relatively easy since people are pushing an effort out - but what about the local elections?

Sure, the Florida Amendments and the Broward County Charter changes are administrative - which is why I have included the summary of the amendments and the statements from the newspaper’s Editorial Boards for your perusal.  

Disappointingly, very little information was out there for the non-exciting amendments (e.g. the amusingly named “Marriage Protection Amendment”) which made the Editorial Boards important in terms of fleshing out the Amendments.

What bothered me the most was the lack of information from the local candidates for the various roles.  In particular, a bunch of the candidates did not tell me who they are - and support their case with details on what they stand for and why I should choose them for office.  Let me break down the Broward ballot and show you what I mean.
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In keeping with my promise, I am including the ten amendments that are being discussed to modify the Broward County Charter. I have been very careful about my publishing of these summaries since I am not trying to suggest one way or another on how to vote.

I know my family and friends who have been reading these posts have appreciated the content and the access to the information that makes voting easier and more effective. I will comment that my biggest frustration lied in voting for the position of Broward Soil and Water Conservation District role (between Oliver Parker and Fred Segal), and since I could not find any information on them, I chose not to vote for either of them.

[UPDATE: Oliver and Fred - would you mind putting some information up somewhere? Even in my comments would be great.]

For the ten initiatives to modify the Broward County Charter, I am listing what I have found published at CBS4.com’s site (with a corresponding link) and the opinion of the Miami Herald and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
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Voting on the Broward Ballot (photo by @fredericguarino)

Whew! I just got my ballot in the mail (since I hate long lines) and I was astounded at the NINE EIGHT sides (four pages) of content on the ballot.

Last cycle, I was on the Early Vote effort for Kerry, I remember going to houses and condos of Early Voters and seeing their ballots on their kitchen tables and the need for the voter to go through all sorts of information to understand each of the ballot measures that were there.

So this time, I decided - why not make a cheat sheet on how to find the answers to the different ballot measures that you might need to research. Spending time on google is one thing, spending it on six different elected offices, six statewide amendments and ten county initiatives is quite another…

I am going to list all of the elected positions on this post, and then summarize the amendments and county initiatives on another. And to help in making a choice, I am going to include the opinions of the two major papers of the area - the Miami Herald and the Sun-Sentinel.
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