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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem VI (E) Discussion re: Supervisor of Elections Proposal to Prohibit Election "Piggybacking" i AGENDA 9-21-93 �; Item VI E "CENTER OF GOOD LIVING-PRIDE OF WEST ORANGE" Ocoe S.sum VAIVUI;KC�xIr'1 4. '`Ty ° CITY OF OCOEE COMMISSIONERS RUSTY JOHNSON Z%1 o. 150 N.LAKESHORE DRIVE W.FOSTER v OCOEE,FLORIDA 34761 VERN COMBS �+�y ?V (407)6562322 SAM WOODSON rF�P OF Gov CITY CITY MANAGER ELLIS SHAPIRO i MEMORANDUM TO: The Honorable Mayor and Board of City Commissioners FROM: Paul Rosenthal, City Attorney Q4U DATE: September 17, 1993 RE: SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS PROPOSAL TO PROHIBIT ELECTION "PIGGYBACKING" The Supervisor of Elections has determined that municipalities within Orange County will no longer be able to "piggy-back" their elections with statewide or countywide elections. If this position prevails, it will be necessary for the City to reschedule the date of the 1994 municipal elections and all subsequent elections. The Orlando City Council has passed a motion requesting that the Orange County Legislative Delegation initiate general legislation which would expressly authorize municipalities to "piggy-back" their elections with the statewide or countywide elections. A detailed briefing will be presented at the City Commission meeting. Attached hereto is a list of options available to the City in response to the proposal from the Supervisor of Elections. Also attached is correspondence from the Supervisor of Elections regarding her proposal. PR:fdg Attachments OPTIONS AVAILABLE IN RESPONSE TO SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS (9/13/93 (By: Paul E. Rosenthal, Ocoee City Attorney) (1) Take no action of refuse to reschedule elections. See: *98 . 051, FS, addresses the opening and closing of registration books. *98 . 091, FS, requires Supervisor of Elections to deliver records required for municipal elections and to collect them after the election. Reimbursement limited to actual costs. *101. 27 (4) , FS, allows for use of paper ballots if official ballot is longer than voting machines can accommodate. *101. 36, FS, grants County Commission the authority to permit municipalities to use voting machines (but see § 274 . 03 , FS, dealing with control of voting machines) . (2) Reschedule municipal election to 30 days prior to or subsequent to statewide or County election. See § 101. 75, FS, authorizing such action by ordinance. (3) Seek change to general legislation in order to require the Supervisor of Elections conduct municipal elections on the same date as any statewide or County election if so scheduled by the municipality. (4) Pass Resolutions of Municipalities urging support from Orange County and requesting that Supervisor of Elections reconsider her decision on conducting municipal elections. (5) Seek support from Orange County Commission to direct Supervisor of Elections to make voting machines available and consider diverting portion of Supervisor of Election budget to funding the conduct of municipal elections. (6) Seek Writ of Mandamus to force Supervisor of Elections to hold municipal elections as scheduled by municipalities. (Note: This may be more effective where a City Charter establishes the election date. ) (7) Seek Special Act requiring that all municipalities hold elections on a date that does not conflict with a statewide or countywide election. (8) Revise City Charters/ordinances to reschedule elections. C:\WP51\DOCS\OCOEVPA\OPTIONS 1 9/13/93 1 18N0021 PER:crt ' If,4�; Si, of 11.10TIo1li, olt•-3 _2 r _•--. /6"1/41:-.c. ri7 a • e • ORANei =MT FLORIDA August 3, 1993 • To: All Mayors and City ACo 'cif Members • PR: Betty Carter V RE: Municipal Elections Meeting Off and on during the past year, particularly during the Charter Review deliberations, we have discussed municipalities within Orange County no longer "piggy--backing" their elections with the county's. We need to gat together as a group and make some plane. I have set up a meeting at the Matinee Club located on city of Orlando property directly behind the American Legion Post 19, 2101 Lee Road, at Ben White Raceway. • I encourage all of you to attend and. please feel free to invite your City Clerk and city Attorney, as we will not be sending them individual letters of invitation. Dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. and the attire will be cam . Please RSVP by August 3 by rwardcallito visiting Bill Cowles �.th you or o�• '• i � •' 836-2070. . Z BC/med 7 ! I BETTY CARTER • SUPERVISOR Of ELECTIONS 1 1 9 WEST KALEY STREET • ORLANDO- FL 3280-6-3967 407/836-2070 • FAX 407/244-3399 • STATEMENT FROM BETTY CARTER ORANGE COUNTY SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS For the past 2 years I have been warning of the probability that the time would come when municipalities would no longer be able to piggyback on county wide elections. Therefore, it will not come as a surprise to you when I must regretfully inform you that as of January 1, 1994, no municipal election can be held at the same time as Federal, State and County Elections. Exhibit I is a 1992 General Election ballot. Please examine it. In the November 1992 General Election, state and county candidates and issues took up almost the entire ballot. Candidates and/or issues in the Cities of Orlando and Winter Park needed more ballot space than was available. An extra three column wide ballot had to be printed for the voters in these cities. In 1994 there are even more possible candidate positions. We already have 16 initiative petitions circulating for constitutional Page 1 amendments - not to mention the fact that the legislature itself is likely to place amendments on the ballot. There is no longer any guarantee that there will be space for even a single city race to be placed on the ballot. Furthermore, there may be space left on one ballot and not on another. We will not know this until after qualifying closes. Waiting until this point is unacceptable to me and I doubt if any municipal candidate would put up with rescheduling their election. For reasons explained in Exhibit II, issuing a second ballot to city voters is not an alternative. The proliferation of ballot styles is explained in Exhibit III and Exhibit IV is a cost comparison. We will continue to assist you with conducting your elections in any and every way possible. I realize that for some this could involve charter changes and for others an ordinance would be required. It is up to each municipality to decide what suits it best - however I would strongly urge that cities work together to establish a common municipal election day. With a municipal election day, candidates and issues on municipal ballots would get the undivided attention of the press and the voters. Page 2 r% If cities could agree on a common election day it would be a fairly simple matter to prepare a special act for approval by the legislature. This would eliminate the need to amend charters or laws to reschedule election days. Exhibit V is a copy of the Special Act used in Broward County since 1975. I would be happy to work with you or to suggest possible sources from other counties which have already made this change. However, if the municipalities choose to hold their elections individually, they can make their request regarding the availability of the registration books as required by Statute and we will continue to work with them to the best of our ability. are-exotzs--,cic3 Betty Carter Orange County Supervisor of Elections Page 3 EXHIBIT II. Page 1 PROBLEMS CAUSED BY THE EXTRA ORLANDO AND WINTER PARK BALLOTS. (Second ballots were issued to voters in 77 of the 199 precincts.) In forty six of these precincts the city ballot was not to be issued to every voter in those precincts since not all portions of each precinct lay within city boundaries. To reduce the , possibility of error, special precinct registers were printed for . these split precincts and the city voters had to stand in line a second time to sign for and receive the city ballot. Many voters complained about this, many did not wait to obtain their second ballot. In precincts where every voter was issued both ballots 14% of them chose not to vote the second ballot. In precincts which were split and the voter had to stand in line a second time, 24% did not vote the second ballot. The cities trained approximately eighty of their own employees to work with these extra precinct registers and issue the ballots. The extra tables and chairs occupied much needed space in already crowded polling places. Printing and copying the extra 84 precinct registers (many splits were large enough to need two city precinct registers) placed much 44' r' 6 EXHIBIT II. Page 2 stress on our already overburdened printing and copying equipment. The extra precinct registers also caused confusion and added to the workload when they were scanned for voter history. Because there is a limit to the number of ballots which can be held in one ballot box, extra tubs had to be sent to twenty-six of these precincts. This exhausted all available extra equipment, leaving us with no back-ups for emergencies. The county canvass board had to delay its work on certification of the general election on the morning after the election, when cities had to follow their charters and count absentee ballots. Orlando and Winter Park absentee voters were sent the two absentee ballots in different envelopes, and with different return envelopes, clearly marked which one was for the city ballot. Apart from the confusion and phone calls caused by these two separate mailings an even greater problem arose. Over 500 (523) voters mailed their county ballot in the city envelope (and visa versa) . These ballots were opened by the wrong canvassing boards and could not be counted since the chain of control had been broken. This one factor alone could cause an election to be thrown out if a race is decided by a small margin. No-one should be willing to take such a costly risk. EXHIBIT III Page 1 BALLOT STYLES A basic ballot style is that combination of races unique to a ballot, and is caused by there being single member district races. Prior to 1988, when single member county commission districts were established, Orange County had 17 possible ballot styles to be laid out, proofed and printed for a General Election. This number increased to 38 with the advent of the single member county districts. In 1992 the legislative re-districting increased this number to 65. To make matters worse, Federal legislation required that Orange County provide all election materials to be printed in Spanish. Therefore we now have up to 130 possible ballot styles to lay out, proof and have printed immediately after the run-off election and the mail out of absentee ballots for the General Election. The presence of current municipal elections on the General Election could increase this number by up to 78 extra ballot styles for a total of 208. The September Primary is even worse. As a party primary there are 262 possible basic ballot styles. The presence of the City of Orlando races on this ballot increases this to 352. .. y EXHIBIT III Page 2 In addition, election laws mandate that 45 days prior to the second primary and general election a special advance absentee ballot must be mailed to all overseas voters who have requested absentee ballots. These advance ballots include ALL POSSIBLE races and candidates that might appear on the respective elections--but they are mailed before eliminations are complete. The advance ballot for the run-off primary is mailed before the first primary has been held. The advance ballot for the general election is mailed before the run-off has been held. It is unreasonable and dangerous to expect such a large number of ballot styles to be printed without error. The cost of staff time and the potential for proofing errors increases proportionately with the number of ballot styles produced. When municipal elections are held with county elections, it causes more ballot styles in many precincts with confusion for the voters and the pollworkers. Holding municipal elections concurrently with county-wide elections jeopardises the integrity of the election results both for the county and for the municipalities themselves. EXHIBIT IV Example of Costs for comparison Example: City of Orlando - Piggy-back - races on county ballot, mayoral election A. If on our primary ballot (assuming candidates in all possible races, but not in Presidential year, when Precinct Offices are on the primary ballot) : 45 ballot styles with city races x 2 parties + 4 Non Partisan ballot styles (1-Mayor;1-Mayor with District 1; 1-Mayor with District 3; 1 Mayor with District 5) for a total of 94 styles x $75/style programming charge =$7050.00 94 plate changes for city races = 7050.00 Spanish = 7050.00 49 plate changes, sample ballots @ $30 - 1470.00 (English only) 63 Precincts x $90.00 per precinct pro-rata costs = 5670.00 86 extra PL/PR lists (minimum) x $25.00 = 2150.00 Total $30,440 (does not include absentees or advertising) B. If election on "Municipal Election Day"- City of Orlando as an example Ballots - 100% 62,000 x $.12 ea. = 7440.00 Assuming 1 column ballot printed on one side (Includes Spanish) Tabulator - Programmed-for 25 polling places (precinct consolidation based on 69% turnout divided among 25 polling places--1700 voters per polling place) 4 unique styles x $150.00 ea. 600.00 21 tabulators each with programming identical to one of 4 above x 75.00 1575.00 Pollworkers 7 per polling place 508/poll pl x 25= 12700.00 Poll rental 25 x 50 1250.00 PL/PR 3 per precinct @ $25.00 ea. 1875.00 Pct. supplies @ $25.00/pct 625.00 Total $26,065.00 (does not include sample ballots, absentees or advertising) (Assuming that we could absorb delivery costs?) • *11,6 SUPERVISOR , OF ELECTIONS RECEIVED AUG 3 01993 CITY CLERK'S OFFICE ORANGE COUNTY FLORIDA August 27, 1993 TO: Municipal Officia FR: Betty Carter `t) RE: Municipal Election Day Follow-up For all of you who were able to attend the meeting Wednesday night, thank you. I believe it was a good session. I appreciate your having delivered the packets of materials to those officials in your municipality who were unable to attend. We will need to have more discussions after everyone has had time to give consideration to the situation. The easiest route to establishing a municipal election day would be by special act sponsored by the Orange County legislative delegation. The deadline for proposed legislation is September 15. I have reserved time on October 25 at 4 p.m. to appear before the delegation in a public hearing and feel it might be a good time to push for the special act, should one be agreed upon. The , Legislature convenes February 8, 1994. This act would go before the community affairs committee before it can be presented on the floor of both houses. As I promised Wednesday night, you will find enclosed copies of special acts establishing municipal election day in Pasco County and Palm Beach Counties. I also want to respond to two questions. The City of Orlando asked about piggybacking on the Presidential Preference Primary. I said no. On Thursday we discussed this possibility and have determined that, if the municipalities concur, we could have it then. There will only be six county ballots and 19 municipal ballots. The Presidential Preference Primary, however, only occurs once in four years; and while it would be a financial help to have these elections together on that one year, we would be using county polling places. For the other three years municipalities would not be able to consolidate their polling places. They would have to use the county's, otherwise it would be too confusing to the voters. From a fiscal aspect it would cost municipalities more. This is a situation that will require a great deal of thoughtful consideration before a decision is made. BETTY CARTER • SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS 119 WEST KALEY STREET • ORLANDO FL 32806-3967 407/836-2070 • FAX 407/244-3399 Municipal Officials August 27, 1993 Page Two I would also like to respond to the suggestion by Mayor Vandergrift of Ocoee. He felt that we should postpone any change until 1995. I responded at the meeting that, for cities piggybacking in the fall of 1994, there would be no assurance of space on the ballot, and we would be facing the same problems we have now in maintaining the integrity of the election. A compromise might be possible. In selecting a possible date, it might be wise to fashion a special act encompassing the date o! July 1, 1994, as the dividing line between municipal officers' terms of office. If we did this in 1994, then the rest of the 1993 elections held in November and December and the Maitland and Eatonville elections in early 1994 would be held as usual. There would be no further municipal elections in 1994. Those whose terms expire between July 1, 1994, and July 1, 1995, would be elected, for instance, in the spring of 1995, and those whose terms expired between July 1, 1995 and July 1, 1996, would be elected in the spring of 1996, and so forth. See the enclosed illustration. If we had this election, for instance, on a Tuesday in April, the qualifying dates would fall between February and March. (The cities are not restricted to a Tuesday election, I use it for purposes of illustration only. It could be any day but Sunday) . Should a city desire a runoff election, it would need to be held four weeks later in May to give my office plenty of time to prepare for it. Perhapa the municipalities need to get together and form a committee. For a special act, time is of the essence. BC/med . L'r •i . ..... 0 0 § Various < o 3 x Apopka A 0 0. Eatonville 0 0 "" .0 Maitland w 3 O V N `< W 3 r CO 3 C '_. 2 - C " CO 2. g V m N J E 'ocp., m < 0 3 Cr 12° Q 0 0 0. Z ctnn sv n V Al r .< N 3 m . 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