It's Election Day in Fort Lauderdale!
It's Election day in Fort Lauderdale.
It's a very important day, but sadly, a day when only one out of ten voters will take the time to pick the City's leaders.
The average voter doesn't see the importance. They figure the "fix is in" ..... or their vote "can't make a difference" ..... or "they didn't even know it was happening", or "they had a dentist appointment" !
But, it was nice to see our City try to drive out a bigger turnout though! ...... See picture below!
oops .... never mind.... that is the City of Wilton Manors !!
.......... but we do have our engaged Citizens, and some were out in the intersections this morning trying to help their candidates win! ..... (scroll down!)
............. and the candidates themselves were out working hard ......... (see below!)
Steve Glassman working the phones at Art Serve Polling location
Charlotte Rodstrom races across traffic for sign holding duty
........... the results should be rolling in about 8pm this evening........remember, all candidates will need at least 50% to win outright tonight, or the top two vote getters go into a run-off on March 10th ....
........... Lastly, we asked all the candidates where they would be tonight, and here is all I was able to find out........
........... Seiler will be at the World Famous Parrot Lounge
........... Rynerson will be a Mcguires Pub
........... Roberts says he will be walking neighborhoods until the last minute
........... Glassman will be at the Pelican Beach Resort
........... Rodstrom will be at Smith and Jones Grill on Las Olas
........... Prewitt will be home watching results
........... Dubose will be at his fraternity house
........... Elfman will be at his restaurant, Island City Bistro
It's a very important day, but sadly, a day when only one out of ten voters will take the time to pick the City's leaders.
The average voter doesn't see the importance. They figure the "fix is in" ..... or their vote "can't make a difference" ..... or "they didn't even know it was happening", or "they had a dentist appointment" !
But, it was nice to see our City try to drive out a bigger turnout though! ...... See picture below!
oops .... never mind.... that is the City of Wilton Manors !!
.......... but we do have our engaged Citizens, and some were out in the intersections this morning trying to help their candidates win! ..... (scroll down!)
............. and the candidates themselves were out working hard ......... (see below!)
Steve Glassman working the phones at Art Serve Polling location
Charlotte Rodstrom races across traffic for sign holding duty
........... the results should be rolling in about 8pm this evening........remember, all candidates will need at least 50% to win outright tonight, or the top two vote getters go into a run-off on March 10th ....
........... Lastly, we asked all the candidates where they would be tonight, and here is all I was able to find out........
........... Seiler will be at the World Famous Parrot Lounge
........... Rynerson will be a Mcguires Pub
........... Roberts says he will be walking neighborhoods until the last minute
........... Glassman will be at the Pelican Beach Resort
........... Rodstrom will be at Smith and Jones Grill on Las Olas
........... Prewitt will be home watching results
........... Dubose will be at his fraternity house
........... Elfman will be at his restaurant, Island City Bistro
Rodstrom looks like a hard worker, she has my vote! NO RODSTROM
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Hi Tim!
Being somewhat of a 'george come lately' to political involvement, this opinion might be one of those naive newcomer hopes that you cited in your excellent book, POLITICS 101 (which I just read...absolutely loved it!).
But is this expectation of a low voter turnout based on past history valid THIS year?
I really think there could be a surprisingly more robust turnout than is generally expected for a number of possible reasons:
1) The interest generated in voting by last fall's Presidential and national elections has clearly demonstrated that people DO give a damn about their government and has proven that voting CAN AND DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE in this country. Consequently, more and more people are recognizing that their vote DOES MATTER to their own future. This 'motivational factor' may well be the major factor being overlooked in the 'low voter turnout' expectation for this election.
2) With three of the five Fort Lauderdale races, including Mayor, having NO INCUMBENT running for reelection, it's 'guaranteed' that this city will see a change of faces and direction in city government. With that, I have to believe more residents will be motivated vote in this election than in past years for the simple reason of: 'Hey, the old guard is gone and this time I really DO have a chance to have a say in the future of this city!' As noted above, having your vote COUNT AND MATTER is a huge factor in the decision for any voter to get out there and vote;
3) The fact that there are FOUR candidates in three of the races (Mayor, District 3 & District 4) and THREE candidates in the other two races virtually assures that most of those candidates will be reaching out to every voter they can possibly find to try to gain an edge. In addition, many of the candidates are new to politics, have a completely different set of friends, neighbors and 'networks', again assuring that new faces from among these non-traditional voters will be showing up at the polls. Think of it as a tree and its branches...with more branches growing out from the tree (more candidates), there are going to be even more leaves sprouting from those new branches (voters).
4) There has been an increase in civic activism this year that, while always there, now commands a much more important role as civic and homeowner associations and other groups have 'upped their game' and learned how to expand their influence via a growing professionalism in their organizational and communications capabilities. These groups can now provide more effective platforms for the candidates to get 'face time' with neighborhood residents that wasn't possible in prior years.
5) Finally, and though it seems obvious to those of us who 'live' a good portion of our time online, the 'Internet factor' has dramatically widened the AVAILABILTY AND VARIETY OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE about the candidates, city government and the issues being faced.
In any case, we'll know soon enough! Thanks! GM
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Dear Neighbors and Friends,
Tomorrow (Feb. 10th) is election day in Ft. Lauderdale. Every vote counts because, based on the past, only about 10% of the residents vote in municipal elections like this one.
Three years ago we elected Charlotte Rodstrom to fight excessive development of massive, high-rise, high-density buildings, to encourage developers to construct people-friendly size buildings compatible with our neighborhoods and protective of our environment, to enhance and safeguard our quality of life, to keep taxes low by controlling budgetary spending and to work with police and community members to alleviate crime and make our streets safer. And what we asked her to do, she did. Few elected politicians remember what they promised as candidates, Charlotte is the exception. For the last 3 years she fought for us. WE MADE THE CORRECT CHOICE THEN, WE NEED TO DO IT AGAIN.
And so we encourage you to vote for Charlotte Rodstrom for District 2 Commissioner. She certainly is best qualified to represent all of us. Here are some of the people (and companies) who agree with us and, therefore, endorsed Commissioner Rodstrom :
Fraternal Order of Police, Ft. Lauderdale, Lodge #31
Ft. Lauderdale Professional Firefighters, I.A.F.F. Local 765
The Sun-Sentinel editorial board
The Miami Herald editorial board
Mel Rubinstein (former President of the Central Beach Alliance, former member of the Beach Redevelopment Advisory Board, Treasurer & Board Member for Birch Crest Condo Association)
Judy Scher (President of Birch Crest, former Vice-President of the Central Beach Alliance, former member of the Beach Redevelopment Advisory Board)
Mike Moskowitz (Current Member of the Ft. Lauderdale Planning & Zoning Board)
AND NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Hope to see you and all our neighbors at the polls.
Thank you and have a good day.
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Garcia is campaigning and talking to voters.
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Well guys - It was fun and it was real. I want to thank all the voters who came out for me and in general. I want all the voters who voted for me to vote for Roberts so we can actually have a majority of new faces and maybe make a difference. Plus, I will continue to fight the crime in the condos and will be putting the city commission on the spot to actually do something to help. Roberts actually understands crime and has promised to help the innocent and protect the homeowner. Teel on the other hand doesn't care about condo or homeowner law and in fact made comments that the law was written for the lawyers. To all a good night and anyone who needs help with thier condo - let me know!!!! Sorry Teel - you didn't get your majority tonight.
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Tim, as you wrote following the dirty old men and the ambush on the Galt, this was a very bad day for Fort Lauderdale. We have replaced a terrible mayor with a bad one. God save the taxpayer, because Seiler and the CC will suck the life blood out of all of us.
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Why Do People Vote? Genetic Variation in Political Participation
Washington, DC—A groundbreaking study finds that genes significantly affect variation in voter turnout, shedding new light on the reasons why people vote and participate in the political system.
The research, conducted by political scientists James H. Fowler, Christopher T. Dawes (of UC San Diego) and psychologist Laura A. Baker (of University of Southern California), appears in the May issue of the American Political Science Review, a journal of the American Political Science Association (APSA). The article is available online at: www.apsanet.org/imgtest/APSRMay08Fowler_etal.pdf.
“Although we are not the first to suggest a link between genes and political participation,” note the authors, “this study is the first attempt to test the idea empirically.” They do so by conducting three tests of the claim that part of the variation in political participation can be attributed to genetic factors. The results suggest that individual genetic differences make up a large and significant portion of the variation in political participation, even after taking socialization and other environmental factors into account. They also suggest that, contrary to decades of conventional wisdom, family upbringing may have little or no effect on children’s future participatory behavior.
In conducting their study, the authors examine the turnout patterns of identical and non-identical twins—including 396 twins in Los Angeles County and 806 twins in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Their findings suggest that 53% of the variation in turnout can be accounted for by genetic effects in the former, with similar outcomes in the latter.
Moreover, genetic-based differences extend to a broad class of acts of political participation, including donating to a campaign, contacting an official, running for office, and attending a rally. According to Fowler, “we expected to find that genes played some role in political behavior, but we were quite surprised by the size of the effect and how widely it applies to all kinds of participation.”
“The fact that we have found genetic variation in voting, and political participation in general, should not be surprising given the large numbers of behaviors that have already been found to be heritable,” observe the authors. They conclude by noting that “the next step in this line of research must move beyond estimates…and attempt to identify why genes matter so much.” Some potential avenues include examining the interaction of genes and the environment on political participation, tracing the connections between participation in small groups and large-scale participation, and identifying the genes or groups of genes implicated in political behavior.
http://www.apsanet.org/content_53616.cfm
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Tim, This was a most pathetic election. Fort Lauderdale has 133,878 voters, and the Mayor was select by a pathetic minority of 9,210 -- not even 7 percent.
With figures like these,
Fort Lauderdale deserves the sleeze.
Really pathetic.
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Smilin' Jack said, "I will not in good conscience do anything to raise property taxes… I am not against increasing city revenues, but we have to look for alternative sources of revenue that are not property taxes."
How would Jack know anything about Fort Lauderdale property taxes, when he has never paid them?
Please stop the hypocrisy.
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