On Tuesday, November 6th Floridians for Smarter Growth held a press conference for all media outlets housed in the Tallahassee Press Center. We set up actual voting booths with sample ballots from the City of Tallahassee/Leon County and Orange City/Volusia County to illustrate the potential voting experience Hometown Democracy would have created if it had been in effect prior to the 2004 and 2005 elections. Curious reporters, as well as a Hometown Democracy advocate, stopped by to see first-hand the impractical forty-seven-page City of Orange City/Volusia County sample ballot. Although the sample ballot for the City of Tallahassee/Leon County was slimmer, visitors still seemed overwhelmed by its sixteen pages of highly technical amendments. Our table of sandwiches proved not only to be a nice refresher for guests, but a necessity if they planned to spend the day voting on such complex issues. The perplexed expressions on our guests’ faces further demonstrates the unworkable nature behind this so-called Hometown Democracy initiative.
- Aimee Sheire; Public Affairs Spec.
