“Mabel!”

“Stop yelling, Fred.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m right here, Fred.”

“I want to learn more about that Copeland fella but I can’t read this damn thing!”

Today is a re-run.

 

An episode of Mabel and Fred
from last month.

That “Copeland fella” is Mr. Tom Copeland who ran for a seat on the Lake Worth Beach City Commission. Copeland got clobbered by District 4 Commissioner Herman C. Robinson last week and he quickly conceded the race. Although it could have gone to a run-off election which would have excited his supporters any chance of that happening officially ended last Friday.

Besides Copeland getting clobbered so did Mr. Richard Guercio who was edged out by a candidate many heard about but had never seen, Mr. William Joseph. Reports kept coming in from the field that Joseph was indeed on the campaign trail but the longer he stayed out of sight the more and more his star rose as a mythical figure in local politics.


Now back to Mr. Copeland.

What did Fred have trouble reading last month?

Fred was referring to a door hanger he found on the front door from Mr. Tom Copeland during the campaign for the District 4 seat and on the same day Fred got a political mailer from Commissioner Herman Robinson too. Being that Fred and Mabel are Senior Citizens they both appreciate the information they received from Robinson. And they also appreciate that Copeland took the time and money to reach out to them with a door hanger.

But there is one very big difference between the information they received from Robinson and Copeland and you will learn more about that below.

Candidates rarely if ever think about the typeface and typesize when they send political information to voters. But they should. And even the City of Lake Worth should be very aware of how information is delivered to the public. 


FYI: Voters should save political mailers and door hangers after Election Day. Why? They come in handy later on as a reminder (see two examples below).


Before we get back to Mabel and Fred below is a paragraph from the Post’s endorsement for Mr. Tom Copeland in the District 4 race. If you look real close you can read it:


Copeland, 34, is a high-octane campaigner who pitches an array of proposals. He says he’d build consensus for a parking and mobility plan for downtown, push for a comprehensive plan for the Casino complex and press for more spending on infrastructure — and that’s just for his “first year in office.” Alone among the candidates, he advocates closing the beachside pool permanently and replacing it with a community pool on city-owned land in a low-income neighborhood where the city’s neediest residents would have easier access to it.


The typesize above is about 6′ type. The text in the Post print edition is 9–10′. Political information like mailers and door hangers should use 12′ at a minimum.

Political mailers and door hangers are not cheap. All that time, energy and campaign fundraising is wasted if the public cannot read it. That political FREE SPEECH just gets thrown in the recycling bin or tossed in the trash.

The Post uses a serif font, a very readable one like the serif Roman version on this blog. The information that Mabel and Fred received was a sans serif font, also very readable.

Which font a candidate uses is rarely something a candidate cares about. But many find a serif font more pleasant than a sans serif one.

Now let’s examine two examples of FREE political speech, a door hanger and a mailer.

Does anything stand out in particular?
Like the magnifying glass!

Click on FREE SPEECH to enlarge:

Look over Herman’s list of accomplishments in 10′ type. Now look over Copeland’s bullet list in 7′ type. One can see how Fred could have difficulty reading Copeland’s accomplishments.

“Who’s Tom Copeland?”

Maybe the voters could have found out
if they could actually read it!

Although Copeland’s door hangers were of poor design in other ways he contributed greatly to the public discourse in Lake Worth Beach. And so did Messrs. Joseph and Guercio. Hope to see all you men tomorrow at City Hall for the ratification of the election results and of course Cathy Turk too!