Commentary
20 years after the “hanging chad” debacle, Palm Beach County is doing the election right.
Yesterday was the first day of early voting in Florida. Although Sharon and I vote by mail-in ballot, this year we didn’t mail our ballots but waited to place them in the polling place drop-off box at our neighborhood library.
As we drove up to the library, in a pouring rain, we saw a line of literally hundreds of people, umbrellas in hand waiting to vote. What a thrilling sight!
And it wasn’t happening just in my district. According to the Palm Beach Post, nearly 14,000 braved the storm to come out to vote yesterday. But as great as that first day turnout, according to the Post, “Those numbers paled in comparison to the avalanche of 233,668 mail-in ballots that have rained down on elections workers for weeks.” The Post went on to report that as of the close of the first official day of voting, “Nearly a quarter of the county’s 1 million eligible voters have already voted.”
As for us, we didn’t even have to get out of the car. We simply drove up to the one of 24 special Palm Beach County ballot drop off vans positioned at polling places and shopping malls. Quick, easy, secure.
Next step will this afternoon when I go to the county’s Election Commission website to see that our ballots were received. Then later in the week, I’ll return to the site to ensure the ballots have been counted. (Counted! That brings up yesterday’s story about signatures which I mustn’t revisit, in fear of an, um, angst relapse).
https://around-the-block.com/2020/10/19/you-could-drive-a-person-crazy-you-could-drive-a-person-mad/
Kudos PBC and our Supervisor of Elections, Wendy Sartory Link. You really have come a long way, baby.
So, take that, California. And take your superciliousness, along with your phony GOP ballot drop boxes. Who’s the laughing stock now?
Wait, what? DeSantis is still our governor? And Rubio and Scott still our senators?
Never mind!
Around the Block 
I appreciate that you are making attempts to keep some humor in a very humorless situation. Laughter is cathartic 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼♥️♥️♥️
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Love your posts. Getting them via E-Mail. By now, you’ve probably been advised that your and everyone else’s vote won’t be counted until after polls close on Nov. 3rd
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Eugene, thanks for your support. I really appreciate it.
Regarding vote counting, while this article from the Sun-Sentinel is 10 days old, it appears that, at least in PBC, votes will be counted as they come in.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/elections/fl-ne-palm-beach-ballot-counting-20201010-y3hfsriov5bjbmf7hnls6rs25q-story.html
The article closes with this:
“Results of the ballot-counting that is under way now won’t be released and posted until after the polls close on Election Day, Nov. 3.”
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Ted, When you go on pbcelections.org and hit status, under “Please Read” you will see what I am referring to.
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Got it. Thanks for pointing that out.
So, they’re counting the votes (per the Sun-Sentinel) but just not letting you know.
Perhaps I should amend my headline to “PBC, you’ve come a long way baby…almost!”
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Let’s not get too much into semantics here…although as is said, ‘We’ve got semantics, or we have nothing.’
Ballots being counted early (getting a head start) is a good thing…and…releasing any election results is positively unAmerican, undemocratic. Although one question continues to ring in my head – what’s happening to those ballots, and the ‘counting information’ between now and Election Day?…or am I being overly cynical and paranoid?
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Oh, Charles. You make my head spin. When am I ever going to see you again?
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I know that judge w the hanging chads My sons friends uncle. November 20 years ago
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Ted….can only hope that Floridians vote for the change that our country desperately needs…..between the Governor and his idol, hoping for the best for Florida and our country !
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