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Clark, Killingsworth square off for elections supervisor
Article published on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 |
PINELLAS COUNTY - Republican Deborah Clark and Democrat Jack Killingsworth are vying for Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections in the Nov. 4 general election.
They were asked what they would do as Pinellas County elections supervisor to increase voter participation in all elections and what other services, programs and procedures would they address.
Deborah Clark joined the elections office and served as deputy administrator from 1978 through June 2000, when she was appointed elections supervisor by Gov. Jeb Bush. She was elected to a four-year term on Nov. 7 and re-elected in 2004. She lives in Palm Harbor.
Education: Clark has an associate of arts degree from St. Petersburg Junior College.
Community activities, committees: associate board member, Kids Voting Tampa Bay; chairwoman, Pinellas County United Way campaigns; several committees in the Florida State Association of Supervisor of Elections; chairman and secretary of the Pinellas Federal Credit Union.
Increasing voter participation: Programs that I implemented in the schools have been very successful.
Voter Registration in High Schools includes registration drives and our Vote in Honor of a Vet program is presented in all senior classes in every high school and really resonates with young voters. Students see a slide presentation that includes every war in which our country has engaged. They receive a bio of a veteran and a dog tag to wear that pledges “I will vote in future elections in honor of my vet.” School elections are conducted in elementary, middle and high schools. A ballot suited for younger students is used in the lower grades, and elections for student council and homecoming king and queen, as well as others, are supported in middle and high schools. Our goals are to introduce students to the voting process early, provide an opportunity for them to vote every year so it becomes a habit and help them understand that every vote is important and one vote can make a difference.
Statistics from these programs are impressive: Since 2004, we’ve registered 13,000+ students, and 66,000+ students voted in 149 school elections.
We are promoting Vote By Mail because it provides the easiest access for voters and is the most cost effective. All Florida voters can choose to sign up for mail ballots. The request is valid through two general elections and the voter will automatically be mailed a ballot for every election.
We also have an ongoing Voter Education and Registration program that is countywide. We send staff to help with voter registration and demonstrate the voting equipment to any event in the county.
A sample ballot is mailed to every voter household in the county prior to the primary and general elections. It includes the election date, ballot information, voting hours, how to verify voter registration, how to find your polling place and how to request a ballot by mail.
Other services, programs: We developed an interactive Web site that allows the public to complete and print a voter registration application; verify registration status; sign up for ballots by mail; apply to be a poll worker; learn to use the optical scan voting equipment. The public also can access candidate information, including contributions and expenditures; results for current and previous elections; voter registration statistics; election dates and registration deadlines; election laws; candidate forums; voter registration and education events. Information is added regularly to provide easy access.
Requests for public records are complied with in a timely manner. I emphasize to my staff that “public” documents belong to the public, and we are merely the custodian, so it is important that we accommodate all requests as soon as possible.
Jack Killinsgworth is retired from a 47-year career designing electronics and computers for aerospace and defense applications. He came to Honeywell in 1969 to help in the development of strategic missile guidance systems. He lives in Largo.
Community activities, committees: Founder of Programmable Logic Users Group; chairman and vice chairman of the Tampa Bay Section of the Computer Aerospace Systems Society; Standards Committee on Electronic Voting.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, Georgia Tech; master’s degree in business administration, Florida Institute of Technology.
Increasing voter participation: I would expand the number of early voting locations and have the early voting hours from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. Having so few early voting sites and having early voting hours between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. disfranchises many working family voters. Pinellas County had over 70,000 voters vote early in 2004 and more than 35,000 different others have voted early since 2004.
In general elections about 12 percent of all mail ballots are not returned.
In primary elections and municipal elections the percentage of mail ballots not returned is even higher. I would like to have secure mail ballot drop boxes (no postage required) at an expanded number of early voting places.
I would actively encourage citizens to run for public office. The more contested elections there are the more people will have a reason to vote.
I would like to have more stability in polling place locations and have permanent road signs to mark polling places year-round. Once an election is scheduled an additional sign could be placed below the precinct sign that says Vote Here on “scheduled date.” It is low cost, low tech and effective.
Other services, programs: The 2000 election debacle and the subsequent use of touch screen voting machines caused a major loss of confidence in the integrity of our voting processes. I would create a volunteer citizens election integrity audit committee which would be charged with helping to develop “best election practices,” elections office audits, improving transparency and holding me accountable.
I will be a leader in advocating for meaningful election audits. I would like to make paper ballot images available to the public on a DVD for anyone to hand count the ballots. That may require legislative action. If so, I will advocate for such action. Document image scanners are readily available and are in use in many corporate mail rooms.
I will evaluate many exciting new ways to improve the efficiency of our elections office, signature recognition, electronic poll books, and someday perhaps, election data interchange standards that will allow for a vendor independent voting environment and an Internet environment secure enough for Internet voting.
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Article published on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008
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