Our Commissioner Scientist and his "thinking" process...

If someone can explain the logic of Commissioner McVoy, please give it a try.

At last Tuesday's commission meeting, the Commission voted 4 to 1 to change the qualifying period to run for office in Lake Worth. Commissioner McVoy was the lone dissenting vote. The qualifying period is 14 days for one to file before the end of the qualifying period. That is how you go about getting your name on the ballot and become an official candidate. The item concerned the amount of time allocated after that deadline and before the election.

The next election day is 3/10/15; District Two Commissioner McVoy and District Four Commissioner John Szerdi are up for re-election is they choose to run again.

As it was before the vote on Tuesday, if someone were to choose to challenge either of the incumbents, and they qualified on the first day of the qualifying period that person would have only 42 days to run a campaign for the office.

Now, with the change that was approved on Tuesday to the election rules, a person can qualify starting 11/25/14 through 12/9/14. If someone chose to qualify to run for office on 11/25/14, they would have 105 days to actively and openly campaign until election day, on March 10, 2015.

So, the Lake Worth commission voted to extend the campaign time frame by 63 days (105 days versus 42 days), if someone chose to qualify on the first qualifying day, 11/25/14.

In Commissioner McVoy's seemingly twisted logic he sees this as disadvantage for someone considering a run for elected office. Commissioner McVoy is a Cornell University graduate and it's possible he learned something at Cornell that is a mystery to the rest of us, The Great Unwashed.

Could it be 42 days is just a short enough period of time to hide behind smoke and obfuscation? Doesn't a longer campaign period add in the local democratic process in terms of providing more information for voters regarding candidates, where they stand on issues and how they are going to lead the city forward? Isn't more time better than less time? Of course, you could declare your candidacy whenever you want, but the most recent system allowed for people to wait in the shadows, essentially until the last minute, and then attempt to mount a campaign. By this time, campaigning and the legendary telling-of-stories could go on with abandon and it would be hard to get the cows back in the gate. I am all for the new change.