Seeds being sown in Seminole County, Fl may cause problems

[The Backlash Cometh]

for the Dems in the next election:

Seminole County Florida in 2000 was the place where Sandra Gourd, the election's supervisor, allowed a Republican operative to use office space to make changes to absentee ballots. As far as the county is concerned, it also has at least one law firm that has tight tendrils to the GOP. They had one retired partner on the Seminole election's board in 2000, and another defended Sandra Gourd in the lawsuit filed by Democratic lawyer, Harry Jacobs. This is just an example of the tight-knit Republican community, and it just got tighter:

In today's Orlando Sentinel, it's reported that, in addition to Dennis Joyner, who was the election supervisor who stepped down for medical reasons after the 2004 election, his chief deputy, Garrambone, was just forced out.

What Dems should be made aware of is that the position has been filled with even tighter Repub partisans. This is what you need to know:

Jeb Bush appointed Michael Ertel as the county election supervisor. Ertel has a two-year term which puts him in power through the 2006 elections. He's been there a month and already has "hired the former vice chairman of the Seminole County Bush-Cheney campaign to fill" a new position called, "voter-outreach deputy." (Gee, I wonder if more Democratic voter applications are going to get tossed out. That worked so well for the Republicans last election.)

In charge of implementing the planned "aggressive voter outreach program," will be Alex Setzer, "who was also one of Ertel's campaign volunteers and a former president of the Seminole County Young Republicans."

Source: Seminole County section of the Orlando Sentinel, "Election Office is in Flux." Feb. 27, 2005.

Guys, wake up and smell the coffee. If these people toss even one Dem voter application out, the Dems should descend on them with a vengeance, but you need better Dems than this county offers, because most of these Dems have learned to go along in the public sector, to get along in their private business transactions. The other thing to look out for is if the elections office gets sloppy about removing or red flagging Republicans who move out of the county. Or if they add voters to vacant lots. Just playing a little Devil's advocate.

[1monster]

1. So how is it that Jebbie got to appoint the Supervisor of Elections in

Seminole County? That is usually an elected office, not an appointed office.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. I met Dennis Joyner once.

He was in a wheel chair. He's permanently disabled from what I can tell. He may have made one job mistake which I don't think really cost the county much. He only had one office open for early voting. I believe the Dems were outnumbering the Republicans for the early voting, but, as usually happens in this county, at the last minute on election day, the numbers flipped.

I heard the county had problems in Democratic areas, like Casselberry, and I question some things involving absentee ballots which I witnessed myself, but, if these things had anything to do with his dismissal, I haven't heard a peep, though I'm not really "connected" either. So, Joyner probably did get pushed out due to medical reasons. And Jebbie selected Ertel which I won't question either because he came in second place in the supervisor of election's race.

The chief deputy dismissal is more a puzzle.

[Blue Wally]

3. Supervisor leaves office between elections

Governor appoinst replacment till next election. When Miriam Oliphant had her big meltdown in Broward County, Jeb removed her from office (at the request of many Democrats) and appointed her replacement (who then won the office at the next election).