Sandy Parker
The speaker at the January 18 luncheon meeting was club member Sandy Parker, founder and writer of Sparkers-Soapbox.com, a nonpartisan blog, website, and newsletter dedicated to “facilitating and encouraging informed voting in Collier County and throughout Florida.”
Naturally, in presidential election years, we are focused on electing a president and perhaps to a lesser degree, a senator, or a highly visible member of the House of Representatives. But every time we look at a ballot, there is a bewildering array of other items looking for our votes, from referenda to judges to school board members to commissioners and sometimes clerks of offices we never heard of. Often these local offices exert more control over our everyday lives than the president, or the members of Congress who dominate the news, while our attention remains on the big guys.
Sandy led us through a labyrinth of laws and regulations that govern the elections—a process that varies from state to state and even by the office being sought. The thrust of her explanation emphasized that primaries count—especially in Florida where those primaries are closed, meaning that only registered party members can vote in a party primary. In an area like Southwest Florida, the primary often means more than the general election, owing to the overwhelming 70% majority of registered Republicans.
Sandy turned what promised to be a tedious civics lesson on election laws into a gripping revelation of legal quirks, loopholes and obscure rules and an adventure of how things actually get done. What is more, she made this web of complexities understandable to mere mortals with logic and a few clarifying slides. She also stressed the importance of attention to the details of local issues and candidates, so often glossed over by voters on election day.
Her website, Sparkers-Soapbox.com, provides detailed advice on how to register to vote along with relevant, organized information on offices open to vote, issues and how they arose, and just about any question one might have about general and primary elections and the importance of those primaries.
Renny Severance is retired executive editor of The Island Reporter, The Islander, The Captiva Current and related publications on Sanibel and Captiva. He is also a co-founder of Southwest Florida Business Today.