Why you should vote in the August primaries

With early voting underway, Tristan Wood joined Gina Jim Jordan for some analysis of the local elections. We'll also hear from Leon County Supervisor of Elections, Mark Early, about why this primary election is important for voters. Tristan, have you voted yet? I have not voted yet. I'm going to try to early vote this upcoming weekend. Yeah. So let's talk about the primaries and why they're important. They are very important. There's, especially in these kind of midterm years in the state of Florida, there's tons of top of ticket races that are, you know, quite vital to the functioning of the state. There's so many local races, too, that are going to have such a tremendous impact on the area that, you know, this is probably one of the most impactful primaries over the last decade or so. Hmm. Okay. Well, why don't we start with the big one, governor? Okay, well, we'll start broadly. So, Governor Ron DeSantis is term limit. So Florida is choosing a new governor for the first time since 2018. The Democratic field is largely sorted out. It's looking like it's going to be David Jolly. He's fundraised way more than any opponent. The field got the most endorsements and has gotten most of the attention from the media. The Republican primary... The race is centered largely on Byron Donalds's. He's a congressman who's gotten President Donald Trump's endorsement and has clear fundraising and polling leads over the rest of the field. But there are some interesting characters that are also running. You have Jay Collins, who's Ron DeSantis' lieutenant governor, James Fishback, who's kind of this conservative influencer that's branding himself as a political outsider more aligned with the far right of his party. And then you have Paul Renner, who's a former Florida House speaker. And those four candidates are the ones that have gotten most of the oxygen in the race. But Donald's, he's polling with 30, 40 percent support. Many of his ads have been showcasing that Trump endorsement. So in a state that Trump carried so heavily, you know, that's going to be a tremendous boon for him in a Republican primary. You know, what does this say about? Ron DeSantis' legacy. You know, that's a very interesting thing. That's what, you know, a lot of journalists have been talking about is when Ron DeSantis challenged Trump for the Republican presidential primary, kind of the Trump versus Ron DeSantis was a big conversation point in Republican Party circles. Now the fallout of that presidential election, with Trump winning that primary handily and now being president in the United States. You know, it's kind of carried on here a little bit. You have Byron Donalds, who's the clear frontrunner, and two political figures that had tied to Ron DeSantis's reign in Florida in Jay Collins and Paul Renner. Ron DeSantis hasn't endorsed any candidate in this race and hasn't waited. He's expressed dissatisfaction with Donald. So it definitely is a big tent hole moment to signaling that, you know, as Ron DeSantis's...

It's an interesting race to watch in the situation where there is that many candidates running a race. The winner is likely going to win by a slim margin. So on the Democratic side, we have Bryce Barnes, Amanda Green, Nixon-Teslo, and Gen Bailey. And, you know, they've been messaging a lot on those affordability issues and concerns with data centers. And it's going to be hard for any, whichever one of those four emerged from the nominee, for them to win during the general election. because it's such a Republican-dominated seat. Yeah, that'll be very interesting. So that was Congressional District 2. Let's move on to local candidates. Now, you produced our candidate convos. Tell us what went into making that. So I interviewed all the candidates for local office here in Tallahassee and Leon County, all the ones that at least agreed to come in the studio and speak with me. I had, you know, 25, 30-minute. conversations with them where I asked them a lot of the pressing questions. WFSU Public Media YouTube channel has all of those interviews. Now, let's go to Tallahassee Mayor. What's at stake with Tallahassee Mayor? Stepping back, there are three races for the Salliastly City Commission. The mayor is the one that gets a lot of attention. This three-two split, the commission blocks that have dominated headlines for the last six or seven years or so, it's going to change a selection cycle. Mayor John Daly's retiring. You will at least have one new body guaranteed on the commission. In the mayor's race, you have city commissioner Jeremy Matlow, so he's no longer running as an incumbent. He's running for a different seat, freeing up his seat. In the mayor's race, which has gotten the most spending and the most attention, you have Jeremy Matlow, as I said, former state center Lauren Osley, civil rights attorney Daryl Parks, and IT entrepreneur Michael Faust. They've all messaged, essentially dealing with what's wrong with economic growth and economic trends in Tallahassee. Tallahassee has had its population stagnated. So. In my candidate combo series, I spoke with all of them about what they think could go into improving that, right? Matlow emphasized wanting to improve quality of life, walkability, improving like the central urban center. Osley leaned into her experience, you know, working across the aisle and working on a collegial body and wanting to bring in an industry. Parks emphasize wanting to bring in different types of light manufacturing, different types of... manufacturing another development to create a more business-friendly environment in Tallahassee. Faust talked a lot about wanting to bring more artists to town and fight homelessness. A lot of them seem to agree fundamentally that there needs to be economic growth in Tallahassee and there needs to be change. But they did disagree on what the tone of that messaging should look like, what the role of businesses versus the government should be in that. All of them provide a different vision, and whoever is elected to that role is going to have an oversized bully pulpit in portraying that image and trying to unify the city to push for one of those visions. Yeah, okay. So Matt Lowe is vacating seat three now that he's running for mayor, and so there's a crowded field for that seat.

Oh, boy, is it crowded. Six candidates running. A first of Daryl Darr Wavemaker, Alfred. He's a community advocate and a local real estate professional. Talithia Edwards, who's a community organizer and nonprofit leader. PJ Perez, who's a longtime teacher and community advocate. You have Tom Dersopolsky, who's a local business owner and communications executive. You have Max Hurley, who's a political consultant and lobbyist, who has worked with Tallahassee commissioners before, specifically Jack Katie Porter and Jeremy Matlow. And you have Norm Roche, who's a former Pinellas County Commissioner, who's been out of a public office for a while. The common theme that they all seem to agree on and had a lot to say when I asked them about it was that Tallahassee struggles to retain younger people after they graduate from the area's higher education institutions. They provided different perspectives and different answers about what the role of the city should be, what the role of the private industry should be, what the role of different universities should be. All right, let's move to City Commission C-5. Incumbent Diane Williams-Cox is being challenged by former mayor, up from a while back, Dot Inman Johnson, as well as Tiffany Hill. Yes, so that's kind of your classic incumbent running on their record versus two challengers who have expressed the satisfaction with different decisions that Diane Williams-Cox has been a part of. Williams-Cox in her conversations with me stood on her record. She... strongly championed the FSU-TMH merger decision that came down. She said that she's been pushing for affordable housing and other economic improvement projects. And she argues that that FSU-T-MH deal is going to bring a lot of health care options and economic growth to the region. Iman Johnson and Hill have argued against her, saying that she's been uncollegiate with her colleagues like Jack Katie Porter. have said that they disagree with that FSU-TMH deal. Doddeman Johnson, as you'd have alluded to, has long been critical of kind of like the majority block at City Hall. Last election cycle, she ran against Curtis Richards and lost by about one or two points in the general election. So it was a very close race there. But it's going to be interesting to see in this different election climate with such a crowded field in the other races, whether that race gets enough attention to be able to unseed and incumbent. It's generally harder to unseed and incumbent. If you look with all the political division and all the messaging in these local races in recent years, the last incumbent to be voted out was, I believe, Elaine Bryant by Jeremy Matlow back in 2018. She was appointed, I believe, appointed to that office, right? So she didn't, she wasn't elected and maintained and kept there. Generally, in local races, it's hard to unseat an incumbent. There's not a lot of historical precedent for that. Yes. Okay. So there are some other local races, but these are some big ones that we've talked about. Again, we have all this information on our website and on our WFSU public media YouTube channel. Tristan, thank you. It's no problem, Gina. Thanks for having me.

I'm very happy now to welcome Leon County Supervisor of Elections, Mark Early. Welcome, Mark. Thank you, Gina. I'm very happy to be here. I want to ask you about Arnie the Basset Hound. Arnie the Karen Bass Hound. There was this Tallahassee Democrat article that Arnie is going to be a right-in candidate for mayor. And, of course, we know a doggy can't be mayor. But if a lot of people approve of Arnie and vote for Arnie as a right-in candidate, will you tell us those numbers? We will not. Arne is not a qualified writing candidate. So folks often write in all kinds of names on the ballot. There may not even be a line. I can't remember if the mayor race has a qualified writing candidate. So if there's no qualified writing candidate, there won't even be a right-in line there. Okay. No Arnie, but it was a nice idea. I get the humor, but yes. Hopefully the position of mayor is important enough for a real vote. Yeah, absolutely. So the primary election is happening right now. Early voting is happening. Can you just give us a quick, as exciting as you can make it rundown of... How primaries work and why some races will be decided this month instead of in November. Yeah, so I actually I think primary is a bit of a misnomer. All of the local races here in Leon County, as well as many across the state, are nonpartisan races. So you think of a primary, you think only Democrats and Republicans can vote. For the local races, especially in Leon County, anybody can vote in those as long as you live, say, in the city, then you can vote on all the city commission candidates. There's two circuit judge race is up for election, and they will both be decided this election. And I think School Board 5, if I remember correctly, is going to be decided this election also. So you need to get out there and vote. And if you wait until November, you won't have a say in those contests. And you also won't have a say in... Who is the nominee for the larger parties candidate in November? Yeah. Get out there. This is a very important election. So we've got those that will be decided, plus we've got these closed party primary elections. How does that system affect who can vote in the election outcomes with the closed primaries? Yes, so the closed primaries. So for, say, the candidates for U.S. Senator or representative in Congress or governor. Commissioner of Ag, Chief Financial Officer, those are partisan races. Those are at the state level. This election is the nominating process for those parties to see who is going to represent the party in the general election. There are also quite a few nonpartisan or third party candidates in those races and they will also appear on the general election ballot. So if you are affiliated with the party, get out there and vote. to help choose your party's nominee for those larger offices. Yeah. Okay, now let's pull it back to Tallahassee mayor for a second. We have four candidates for mayor and not counting Arnie, the dog, right on candidates. So we've got four solid human candidates for mayor. Might we have a new mayor after this? It's possible. Absolutely. If someone, if one of the four candidates gets 50% plus one.

of the votes cast this election in the mayor's race, then they will be the mayor. So there is a chance that either the mayor or one of the city commission seats could be decided this election. So all the more reason to get out there and vote and support your candidate. And then otherwise the top two candidates will go on. Exactly. That's exactly right. Yeah. How influential would you say primary elections are? Well, I think they're dramatically influential for the parties and for these local races. You know, there's a lot of strong candidates for mayor and the city commission seats. But if your chosen candidate is very close between second and third place, You need to get out there and vote so that they can go on to the general election. So if you're not voting now, you're really doing your candidates a big disservice. Yeah. Why do you think voter turnout typically tends to be lower in the primaries? A couple of reasons. One is I think that, you know, some people aren't really paying attention during the summer in Florida. I mean, that's one factor, actually. I think also there's a large number of nonpartisan voters. The registered is nonpartisan, and I think that, you know, nomenclature of... partisan primary or primary misleads people. And I think, you know, some people, they just want to wait until the general. They aren't really that involved. But frankly, you know, this is an extremely important election. So you really need to get out there and vote. And your vote has a much bigger proportion of, say, you know, of the vote totals. If you're one of 35 percent versus one of 65 percent in the general, you're having a much greater impact for your candidate in the primary election. Yeah. Lower voter turnout. What kind of effect would you say that has on representation? I think it lets the big-money candidates potentially, you know, have a bigger say because they're the ones getting out the vote in the primaries. The local elections tend to impact people's lives more. And so if you're missing out on this primary or this election right now, you're not having your voice heard. You know, we get complaints about, oh, I don't like who I have to choose from. Well, especially in the general. If you didn't vote in the primary, you're impacting who gets the vote in the general. So, yeah, primary voters are going to influence the types of candidates and policies that ultimately appear on the November ballot. Absolutely. Yeah. Yes. What does the research tell us about who actually votes in the primary? It's the dedicated voters, the people that take pride in never missing an election. And it's the folks that really have their energy level up and are involved in the political scene. But, you know, it's the everyday voter, the ones that miss the primary, really, frankly, that maybe have limited choices in the general because they didn't get out and choose the candidate. They were hoping would advance the general. And then they look at the candidates and it's like, I don't really want to vote for any of those. I was hoping this other person would get out, you know, get on to the general election. Well, do your part to get them advanced to the general. Yeah. Do you have any common misconceptions as far as...

you know, what might keep people from participating in the primaries? I think, again, it goes back to the partisan nature or concept behind primaries. And I think for some reason, people don't pay as close of attention to their local races. Primaries are extremely important for those. Like I say, three races will absolutely be decided this election. School Board five, Circuit Judge, Group 7, and Group 13. Those will be decided this election. Judges are important. You know, if you are a loved one ends up in court, those judges will potentially determine their fate. So, you know, do your research. Legal Women Voters has great resources. As far as judges go, the bar has a lot of information. So there's a lot of resources out there that you can really make an informed decision. But you have to do your homework a little bit. And your office sends out those sample ballots, which is very helpful. We do. Yeah, we send out a pretty extensive election guide. I've got it right here in front of me. How many pages we got? I think we have like 12-page election guide. It's got a lot of information to print and deliver this. It costs the same as under the cost of a first-class posting stamp. So we get a great deal on these, but it has information about where the early voting sites are, how you vote by mail, where you can do drop boxes for vote by mail. types of ballots. It's got all the sample ballot information. It tells where you're polling places specifically. So there's a lot of information out there on that election guide. We encourage you to look at it. Don't throw it away. It's not just standard campaign mail. It helps you get your vote in. So much campaign mail. But I digress. You've been doing this a long time. I have. Yes, I'm in my 40th year working in elections. It's hard to believe. Wow. So you worked under Ion Sancho. You said you actually started in the elections office before he did. Fun fact. Yeah, I started in September of 86, and he took office January of 89. And then what year did you take over as election supervisor? I was going to retire, and so he asked me in 2013 if I would run. It took some convincing I never, ever, ever, and I still can't even believe that I'm an elected official, and I'm not a politician. I think I've proven that many times. But so I ran in 2016 and won, and I took office in January of 2017. Yeah. You've had to deal with a lot of, not necessarily you, but just election integrity, lots of questions in general in the country about elections integrity. How safe are the elections in Leon? Elections are incredibly safe. They're very secure. They tabulate the votes accurately. They are worthy of your trust. With my long experience, I'm part of some federal organizations that oversee cybersecurity. So I interact with lots and lots of election officials from all over the country. They are out there trying to ensure that the foundation of our nation, which is your ability to vote, is secure. We have to fight back against all that misinformation that you can't trust this, you can't trust that about elections. We go to great links. We are working 24-7 really to make sure that our elections are not only as secure as they can be, but as customer-friendly. We have lots of ways to vote. We try and communicate.

the message out there about all the different things that may impact your vote and solve the problems or questions you have and give you every opportunity to get your voice heard. Yeah. You're dealing with constantly changing technology, I imagine. Absolutely. Like, how does AI play into anything that you're doing? I have not been to a conference this year that did not have at least two different sessions focused on AI. So, AI. There is some promise about AI, but you have to be very careful about how you use AI, especially in the elections realm. We've done a little bit of experimentation, but very, very carefully about how we might use AI. Frankly, now we use it occasionally just for messaging, but AI is a very powerful tool to potentially undermine security of elections. So we're very, very cognizant of that. We work. with lots of different agencies, Homeland Security, FBI, FDLE. I mean, lots of agencies all across the nation are very, very focused to make sure that elections are very secure and that emerging threats like AI we have knowledge of. We have plans in place to... counteract that. The ability to attack on a broad scale is enhanced by AI. AI can generate so much, so many attacks that we have to be very careful. So we're trying to get that message out, harden your systems, all the different elections office throughout the nation. And we provide tools to harden the cybersecurity and really the physical security too of every election office so that they can meet that challenge. Great. Okay. So getting back to the races that are actually involving primaries, like Democrat versus Republican, do you think Florida should consider changing its primary system to open or the universal primaries? Ah, that's a good question. I'll answer that with a story. The Leanne County Charter for a long time had the supervisor of elections office categorized as a nonpartisan. office. And so when I ran for office, I had two opponents. One was a Republican and one was the Democrat. And we ran in what's called either a nonpartisan contest or a jungle primary or what have you, where regardless of your party affiliation, you were on the ballot in the primary. And really, the general election was just kind of a runoff for the top two vote getters. It's very similar to, say, school board or city commissioner or county commission races because they are nonpartisan races. I thought that was great. Our office. should be absolutely nonpartisan, unless you specifically ask. It's hard to, difficult to know a supervisor's party affiliation by how they act. We, I think, all are colleagues that are striving for having everyone's vote count, making sure the election laws work well and serve the people, and we get out of the policy realm. So that's a bit of a policy question. However, I will say that I do think it should be nonpartisan. I think that would bring a lot more people in. Right now, there is certainly a movement for a lot of folks to be registered without a party. You know, I think that's one way to increase participation.

but also maybe moderate some of the extremist views out there. Great. So early voting in person, early voting is happening now through Sunday. And then on Election Day, you start actually counting who got a certain number of votes. Election Day is the last chance you have to vote. That's 7 p.m. Now, as you put a ballot through a voting machine, if you're voting in person, that machine is actually looking at your ballot and tabulating your vote and storing it in memory. We don't see the results. Okay, so at all the early voting sites, when you feed your ballot into the machine, it's being tabulated and just being held. And then Election Day, certainly, when you feed your ballots through the voting machine, it's looking at your ballot. And frankly, when you vote in person... If it sees a problem, say you overvoted a race or you made a mistake and put a big X to it and voted somebody else in that contest and it's a vote for one, it'll kick it back and then you can correct that the voter themselves. That's one advantage to voting in person. But frankly, on the flip side, our canvassing board, which is meeting right now twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays at my office and really across the state, we're looking at the mail ballots. somebody makes a mistake on a vote-by-mail ballot, you can put a big X through that or even write on the ballot, say, no, I meant this person, and fill in another oval. And it'll come before the canvassing board, and we will make that adjustment for you and determine voter intent. So that's one of the big jobs of the can't vote-by-mail. If there's a problem, you can really literally write on the ballot and say, this is what I meant. Right on there a little note, and we'll get it. Oh, interesting. Yeah, great. Well, here's to a smooth election. twice this year. Absolutely, yes. Get out and vote. We need your vote to count. Leon County's supervisor of elections, Mark Early. Thank you. Thank you so much, Gina.