Reactions to recent events and linkages...

Let's talk about this missing box of uncounted 500 ballots from last Tuesday's election.  First of all, how can we be sure that there isn't another box of uncounted ballots?  We can't as that would be asking to prove a negative, which many of us know is impossible, but some in Lake Worth like to throw out questions like that due to their impossible to answer nature.  Surely if you can't answer a question, it proves some sort of conspiracy.  But we are led to ask that question since we have become distrustful of what should be a sacred and trustworthy system.

But we really don't have to do that here as there is enough circumstantial evidence from various elections in Lake Worth that call into question just how level the playing field is.  Don't forget (the PBP seemed to) that there was a 831 vote drop-off in the total number of votes between the District #2 and District #4 results.  The only way that this can be logically explained is that the design of the ballot caused 831 people that voted in the District #2 race not to vote in the District #4 race since the later appeared on the back of the sheet where all the other candidate races were located.  Instead, the District #4 race squirreled away in the upper left hand corner of the ballot alone with all the Amendment questions on the right hand side of the page.  If you ask me, this is like losing a box of 831 uncounted ballots related to that race.  How would the results be different if the 831 voters in the District #2 race also voted in the District #4 race?  We will never know since those ballots never made it into a box to not get counted.  How is this accurately reflective of our representative democracy?

Going back to the "found" box, would we even know of its existence if there wasn't a recount in the School District race?  The city has already recorded the results and the State of Florida will be certifying the results Sunday at noon.  Given the vagaries in counting votes around here, could that be rushing things?  It's sort of like in college football, when the team playing on offense has a play that could go either way, but is called to their benefit, races to get off the next play before an adequate review is done of the questionable call so that they "lock in" the results.

Then we have the difference in tone between the article about the swearing in ceremony and how the results were decisive and the new direction for Lake Worth is on solid ground etc, and then we have the latest article talking about the slim victory in the two Lake Worth races that could be overturned.  Not quite the same tone given different authors' take on events.  The later article about the uncounted ballots paints a different picture of the supposedly decisive victory portrayed in the previous.

Then we have a situation where assigned and approved "poll watchers," who actively campaign for certain candidates and are very recognizable figures in the community, freely go between being outside waving signs for their candidates and then go inside the polling locations showing badges indicating some sort of official capacity and function.  Hmmm.

Then we have instances when canvassing neighborhoods where houses that are vacant or address numbers that can't seem to be found, have a record of voters casting ballots in previous elections.  Then you have what I have heard to be the "anarchist map" which the opposition maintains showing locations of their people recruited to certain properties, perhaps in time for voter registration deadlines, who are told who to vote for and become part of the ground forces of the opposition during campaign time.

Then we have another recent election where absentee ballots, destined for Lake Worth prior to an election, somehow were lost inside the Supervisor of Elections building too late to be mailed out  to those that requested them.  How many voters did that represent that did not have their vote counted and how did that alter the results of that election?

Then we have the time, back in March of 2007, when I happened to be at the Shuffleboard Court area waving signs on election day.  A man approached me speaking very little English.  He was holding a simple printed flier on regular paper with a picture of my opponent on it with her name and little else.  He asked where he could go to vote "for this woman."  I pointed to the door where people went in to vote and, like a good candidate, went to my car to get one of my fliers saying that this is who he has to vote for.  He repeatedly insisted, "No, I MUST vote for this woman."  He refused to take my flier. Hmmmmm.

Then we have a situation of disproportionately low property values relative to other municipalities in Palm Beach County, or I venture to guess all of South Florida - especially given our coastal location.  The cause for the severe drop in property values lays at the feet of those on the City Commission that make decisions which ignore this fact - in essence furthering the slide of property values relative to other communities and this is held up as a triumph - a goal achieved.  Then you have certain real estate agents whose stock-in-trade is the buying and selling of sub-par west of Dixie properties (now east of Dixie too) that feed on the bottom of the market - hastening the fall of prices.  This is the same real estate agent that calls specific people in his "farm area" to place signs on their property for candidates which, when elected, help depress property values - hmmmmm.

Then you have what must an international network of people ready to move here - evidence the Earth First! relocation - who now can move to a community where cheap housing is readily available.  The wrecking crew has already done its job and now its time for the bulk of the "pioneer species" to move in.  No need to worry about retribution or interference in what you are doing since a "beachhead" has already been established in advance.  Those in power will look the other way - they have already extinguished debate and subdued to the opposition (regardless of the means.)

I could go on, but won't for now.  Feel free to add your comments.