Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Bender: Road to November
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: Welcome back. I'm Rick Alsen. This is Rick's Blog Live. Thank you for watching us. If you're watching this on YouTube, this show goes live every Friday in the afternoon, so you can first see it there. Of course, if you're watching on YouTube, like and and subscribe. You'll help us a whole lot by doing that. We also have an audio version that's available on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify. So you can just if you want to listen to this while you're in the yard, you can do that too. We want to connect with you as many ways as possible. August 18th, election is over. It is the cruelest poll ever taken because there is no doubt about it. You know exactly how many friends you have and who told you the truth, whether they were going to vote for you or not. We had a little bit less turnout than we had hoped for. And to help us talk about it, we've got supervisor for elections, Robert Bender. Robert, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it. Robert Bender: you know we we did better than we did in 24 sort of split the difference between 22 and 24 primary so record breaking for early vote but again our vote by mail numbers are down which are they're down across the state with having everybody to renew that again you're also on the heels of 2020 because when you made a 20 a request for vote by mail in 2020 it was good for two two election cycles so a lot of people in 22 got those vote by mails from 2020 but and then also split the election day numbers almost in half we had thirty thousand on twenty in twenty twenty two, twenty thousand in twenty twenty four, and we were right there just above twenty five thousand. So again of course like to be better but again a little bit above the state average in in terms of turnout and and and about the best in the panhandle so Rick Outzen: Well you look at you know you look at I was looking right before we came on I know I was following the mayor's race and seeing how the precincts were working and it it was not down nearly as much. about seven hundred fewer votes were cast this year than four years ago in the primary for the mayor's race. about a five percent, four point eight percent drop. So that you could see when you have a lot of candidates that are really working hard. that generates interest and even though the overall count was down, you had a lot of interest in that race. it is h it when you look at it may be too early, I know but have you looked at the number of vote by mail ballots you sent out and how many returned, you have an idea what that percent is? Robert Bender: We're we're probably closer to seventy-five percent on that. Which usually we do have a little bit higher per percentage of of returns. I think we sent a little over twenty-three thousand and and we're right around fifteen thousand that have been been returned. So maybe a little less than seventy-five percent, but but usually I think for for the twenty-four general, again sent out a little over forty thousand and I think we were right there north of thirty-five, maybe thirty-seven range. So again, a little bit higher percent of the return. Sometimes somebody maybe got their ballot and and they only had that school referendum on there and and didn't feel the need to send it back or something like that. But yeah, usually a little bit higher on the return side of vote by mail. Rick Outzen: Well and and usually this is the year that you have the K Florida cabinet, those races are are up, and they in the past have generated a lot of excitement of of those races could be hotly contested, particularly for governor, and that can drive people to the poll. This year it was and it turned out the way everybody thought it would be, with Byron Donald's being the Republican nominee, David Jolly being the Democratic nominee. That that didn't drive as many people to the poll. It's funny, you look at these type of years, it's the governor's race that makes a big difference. In the other two years from now it'll be the presidential race. And usually the sheriff's race is the one that generates a lot of excitement and gets people to the polls. Not so much the last few years, but but that that's definitely part of this. Yeah, you what do you see as far as early voting worked well this time, Robert? the will we have as much time to early vote in the general so Robert Bender: So we'll have more time for early vote. We'll we'll go from the mandatory eight days to include those optional days on the front end. So we'll have 13 days of early voting. We'll also expand it 30 minutes on the back end. So we'll go from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. great. Every one of those 13 days, we'll have the 10 sites, same 10 sites will still be up. But talking about turnout a little bit, you know, I think sometimes when it's an open seat, you see a little bit higher turnout. So for Escambia County, our highest percent turnouts even in presidential years, Clinton's first term, Obama's first term. term. Right. so maybe seeing that that the open mayor's race from four years ago drove out a few more people than it did this time it might might be in line. In terms of a gubernatorial, eight years ago when we had an open governor seat, we hit 61% turnout where typically would be in the low 50s. and so of course we're expecting a turnout to be a little bit lower than it is in a presidential. Some some people think that the president actually impacts their daily lives more or something like that. You there's more excitement around around a presidential than Than a gubernatorial. And in fact, I was even feeling it this time. I said, I just feel like there's something missing. Right. And there's not the excitement, there's not the energy in the air that you have with a presidential. And so I'm I'm glad my staff was able to explain that to me on why I was feeling a little a little different. but but hopefully, again, with an open gubernatorial, hopefully this is a a great matchup between the the two primary candidates and and the the others that are on the gubernatorial side. and that it drives that turnout to where we are more closer to that sixty one percent that we were eight years ago versus the f the low fifties that we're historically are for a gubernatorial race. So we'll also have a Senate race, we'll have congressional districts in the area, so lots to vote on, just not school board and mayor, just like we said, it could be decided and it was decided in the in the primary. Rick Outzen: You were right. You were totally right. And so the for for the public too, there's a if you're not registered to vote, there's the books will open back up where you can register to vote. you can change parties, but it doesn't really matter in the general because you can vote for whoever you want to vote for. but if you if you want to register to vote, this is the time to do it. we'll give you all the dates that you need to keep in mind when that book closes, when you can i the deadline for requesting vote by mail. If you've gotten a vote by mail now for the primary, you're automatically in for the general Robert Bender: As long as you've asked to to do all elections. Some some people may only have a request at the primary and and we'll we'll do that. But if you have a we call it all request, it would it'll be good through November and so you'll get one when we send those out. Rick Outzen: So w when do you get to take a break? Robert Bender: Thanksgiving. Thanks. Rick Outzen: Skimming, okay. Robert Bender: So you know, so right now we we are are finalizing the reports and and and so we're we're today we're scanning the ballots from yesterday in into into clear ballot, which is our audit system and and then we'll perform that audit in Scambia County. We'll do one hundred percent of the precincts, one hundred percent of the ballots, all the races, compare that to the tabulation system again. twenty twenty four ninety nine point nine nine eight percent match. Right. again, some of those just nuances that you see are the are the differences. And so we'll do that. We'll start designing the ballot for November now that we know who's gonna be on it. still waiting on amendment three language to come out, which which should be we here by the end of the week. and and and so we'll we'll we'll design that ballot and get it ready. We'll start printing those and and getting ready for a vote by mail that are are just going out. I think it's early September. Rick Outzen: gosh, right on top of us. Robert, I hope you'll I hope you'll stay with us. I like having Robert on the show because I w it's very important that we vote. Our democracy depends on voting. this is how we get to shape our government and shape our future as a community. So Robert, thank you for coming on as often as you have. we'll do a lot of it towards the end of September and heading into November. Again, this is important for all of us. All the election results they're on the blog, rixblog.biz. Of course, Robert's site is scambia votes.gov has all the information. so you can check out how your candidates did if you haven't done so already. We're gonna go ahead and take a break. We'll be right back. I'm Rick Allen. Robert Bender: Yeah.