Stafford: Election Day Tips
August 25, 2014
Supervisor of Elections David H. Stafford offers Escambia County voters the follow tips to prepare for Tuesday’s primary election day:
- Confirm the location of your polling place prior to Election Day: check your sample ballot, voter information card, EscambiaVotes.com, or call 595-3900.
- If you are unsure of your registration status, check EscambiaVotes.com, e-mail soe@escambiavotes.com, or call 595-3900.
- If you need to update your address, contact the elections office prior to Election Day so you can be directed to your proper polling location.
- Photo and signature ID is required for all voters – if you do not present an approved form of ID, you may vote a provisional ballot.
- Be sure to review your sample ballot prior to Election Day in order to familiarize yourself with all of the contests. A sample ballot was mailed to voters, and you can view your sample ballot online at EscambiaVotes.com.
- Voters are encouraged to study and mark their sample ballot and bring it with them to the polls to expedite the voting process.
- Remember to make only one selection per contest on your ballot.
- Registration books closed on July 28 – new registrations for this election may not be made at the polls.
- You may not return your voted absentee ballot to your precinct on election day – it must be returned to the elections office by 7 p.m.
- If you requested an absentee ballot but chose not to return it and wish to vote at your polling place instead, please bring your ballot with you so it can be cancelled.
- Early voting ended Saturday – if you have not yet voted or did not request an absentee ballot by August 20, you must go to your designated precinct on election day.
- Busiest times at the polls tend to be 7:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m., during lunch, and 4:30 p.m. until the polls close at 7:00 p.m.
- For further information, please contact us by phone at (850) 595-3900, e-mail us at soe@escambiavotes.com or visit www.EscambiaVotes.com.
State Parties Rake In Millions Ahead Of Elections
August 25, 2014
The Republican Party of Florida raised about $14.9 million in a little less than five months, while the Florida Democratic Party collected $13.1 million, according to newly filed finance reports.
The money was raised from April 1 through Thursday, as both parties gear up for elections that feature the big-ticket gubernatorial race. Already this year, the GOP has raised nearly $25.3 million, about $10 million more than the Democrats. During the most-recent period, the Republican Party reported spending $20.9 million, while the Democrats spent $10.7 million, the reports show.
by The News Service of Florida
Wahoos Win At Home Against The Montgomery Biscuits
August 25, 2014
Excitement ran high when Ben Lively toed the mound for the first time in his hometown for the Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos.
A much larger than usual sellout crowd packed the ballpark to see the big 22-year-old righty from Gulf Breeze High School start, after he tore up the California League for the High-A Bakersfield Blaze.
Sunday night in his last home start, Lively had several members of the Cincinnati Reds front office looking on, including Walt Jocketty the president of baseball operations and general manager.
Lively delivered his first win in seven starts at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium as the Blue Wahoos stomped the Montgomery Biscuits, 9-4, in front of 4,019 on Sunday. The Wahoos have two more home games left against the Biscuits at 6:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday.
Jocketty, who was making his second visit to Pensacola, gave his critique of Lively after watching the game in the stands behind home plate. Lively ranks as the sixth best prospect in the Reds organization.
“It was the first time I’ve seen him pitch,” he said. “From what I saw he has pretty good stuff. He has a rising fastball and a good curveball. I wished I had seen him earlier. He’s had a great year.”
Lively, who entered the game 0-4 with a 3.86 ERA in front of family and friends from across the Pensacola Bay where he used to play in Gulf Breeze, was “absolutely” happy to post a W. On the year, he is now 3-6 with a 3.76 ERA and his five strikeouts in five innings last night gave him 167 on the year to remain among the top three pitchers in strikeouts in all of minor league ball.
“I stayed relaxed,” said Lively, who admitted not even remembering where he was in his first start in Pensacola. “I was a lot more calm than I was before.”
Right fielder Kyle Waldrop who had two singles, a double and a triple in five at bats scored twice and knocked in two runs said he was happy for Lively.
“It definitely feels great to get him some runs,” said Waldrop, who is batting .471 over the last two series with two home runs and 11 RBI. “He has pitched well all year.”
After the game, Lively said even tougher than fighting his nerves in his first start was fighting the 93-degree temperature to start the game. He said the heat and the 80-plus percent humidity was something he wasn’t use to anymore.
“Every time I pitched, I could see sweat flying off my arm,” he said. “It’s tough to pitch in a sauna. I just had to bear down and throw strikes when I needed to.”
The biggest adjustment Lively said he has made at Double-A is throwing a two-seam and four-seam fastball to vary the miles per hour from the high 80s to mid 90s and getting better command of his curveball that dips to the low 70s.
“We’ve been working on it and all the pitchers have been helping me out,” Lively said.
He said he’s happy to have gotten the chance to pitch in his hometown despite looking up and seeing people he knows almost every time he looks into the stands and having his cell phone light up with texts. His goal this offseason is to build his strength, especially in his legs, so he can pitch deeper in starts.
“This has been a good learning experience,” he said. “It’s been awesome.”
Wahoos Manager Delino DeShields has liked what he’s seen out of Lively, especially handling playing in his hometown.
“Ben is a competitor,” he said. “He’s pitched a lot better than his record indicates. He will be a lot better for playing here. If he plays here next year, he will be a lot more prepared.”
The fourth game of the five-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays Double-A affiliate the Montgomery Biscuits gets underway at 6:30 p.m. Monday. RHP Robert Stephenson (6-9, 4.84) takes the mound for the Wahoos and is scheduled to be opposed by the Biscuits LHP Jimmy Patterson (3-0, 3.67).
Pedestrian Struck And Killed
August 24, 2014
An Escambia County pedestrian was killed Saturday night when she stepped into the path of a Dodge Caravan on Pace Boulevard near Jordan Street.
The Florida Highway Patrol said 67-year old Linda Lee Green of Pensacola stepped into a crosswalk and was hit by the van, driven by 68-year old Philip Brantley Fisher of Pensacola. Green was pronounced deceased at the scene. Fisher suffered minor injuries, and his passenger was not injured.
Any charges are pending the outcome of a traffic homicide investigation, per the FHP.
Early Morning Wreck Cuts Power, Closes Roads In Byrneville For Hours
August 24, 2014
Numerous Byrneville area residents were left without power during humid early morning hours of Sunday after a single vehicle accident.
The driver of a Dodge Dakota pickup truck lost control at the intersection of West Highway 4 and Byrneville Road and struck a power pole about 12:45 a.m. The driver was not injured and refused transport to the hospital.
The collision sent power lines down across the intersection, closing both roadways for several hours, and leaving an unknown number of Escambia River Electric Cooperative customers without electricity. Additional EREC customers lost power about 4:00 as the downed pole was being replaced.
The accident is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. Escambia County Fire Rescue, Escambia County EMS and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the crash.
Further details, including the driver’s name, have not been released.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Church Takes Cardboard Testimonies Highway 29, Sharing Stories Of Faith
August 24, 2014
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But a few words on piece of plain brown cardboard can tell a life story and story of faith in a way a thousands words could not touch.
The concept is simple. A piece of cardboard. A permanent marker. On the first side of the cardboard for all to see is the story of a sin, a trial, a struggle or battle. On the flip side is where the person stands today though Christ.
“I was broken and tried to kill myself,” read one side of a piece of cardboard a woman stood holding alongside Highway 29. “But God made me whole!”
Her “cardboard testimony” was one of dozens from CrossFaith Church in Molino at the Highway 29 and Muscogee Road intersection in Cantonment Saturday morning. The biggest challenges, hurts, and prayers of a lifetime condensed into seconds for passing traffic on plain cardboard.
“I was a womanizer, a[n] adulterer, drug user, acholic [sic], dealer, verbally abusive,” tough words for a grown man to admit on one side of his sign. The other: “God cleansed and set me free.”
For a photo gallery with more CrossFaith Church cardboard testimonies, click here.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Escambia Early Voting Ends With 4,354 Ballots Cast
August 24, 2014
The final, unofficial early voting tally in Escambia County was 4,354 when eight days of early voting came to a close Saturday afternoon.
Polls for the August 26 primary will be open 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. across Escambia County. Voters may also cast previously requested absentee ballots, which must be received in the Elections Office no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day. Absentee ballots may not be returned to a polling location.
Looking Back: Escambia Railway Engines In 1942
August 24, 2014
Here are two photographs of Escambia Railway engines that were taken 72 years ago this weekend. The Escambia Railway was operated by Alger-Sullivan Lumber Co. in what is now present day Century.
The above photograph — taken in Century on August 23, 1942, shows Escambia Railway Engine Number 99. It was bought new and purposed as a woods logging engine. It was damaged in 1922 by a boiler explosion caused by low water, killing the fireman. It was repaired and returned to service. Engine Number 99 was retired in 1945 and scrapped in May 1957.
Below is Escambia Railway Engine Number 96, photographed in Century on August 23, 1942. The engine was formerly the T.R. Miller Mill Co. #7 and was used as a woods logging engine. It was retired sometime prior to 1945 and scrapped in April 1957.
Photos courtesy the State Archives of Florida.
Photos: Northview Band, Dance Team, NJROTC And Dance Team
August 24, 2014
The Northview High School Chiefs played a Garnet and Gold scrimmage game Friday night.
The Tribal Beat Band, cheerleaders, dance team and NROTC were also out under the Friday night lights.
For a photo gallery, click here.
For football action photos, click here.
Pictured top: Members of the Northview High School Tribal Beat band. Pictured inset: Fans join in a cheer. Pictured below: Dance team members perform. Pictured bottom: JV & Varsity cheerleaders pose and members of the Northview NJROTC. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Nobody’s Perfect
August 24, 2014
What’s the old saying? You win some and you lose some?
That was the case for the state in court this week, where attorneys won a historic case and lost another. On one hand, lawyers for the Legislature won a total victory in the second round of the legal battle over the state’s congressional districts when a Leon County judge ruled that a redrawn plan complied with the Florida Constitution’s prohibition on political gerrymandering. And he ruled in favor of the state on the question of whether the 2014 elections will be held under the existing map or the new one.
On the other hand, a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was struck down by a federal judge — though he suspended his ruling until an almost-inevitable appeal can be heard.
Outside the courtroom, political battles continued ahead of Tuesday’s primaries, though both Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Charlie Crist were expected to cruise to easy victories.
‘A MAP THAT MEETS THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE CONSTITUTION’
It’s beginning to seem like the second time is the charm for the Legislature when it comes to following the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts amendments, approved by voters in 2010.
Lawmakers’ first effort at crafting districts for the state Senate was rejected by the Florida Supreme Court; their second attempt was approved. And after Circuit Judge Terry Lewis struck down the congressional map that lawmakers passed in 2012, he accepted the version that the Legislature drew in a special session earlier this month.
In doing so, Lewis brushed aside the arguments of voting-rights organizations who said that by continuing the north-south orientation of Congressional District 5, which runs from Jacksonville to Orlando, the GOP was packing too many black voters into that district in an effort to shore up nearby Republican districts.
Opponents of the map wanted District 5 to run from Jacksonville in the east to Gadsden County in the west. Lewis didn’t dispute arguments that the critics’ version was more compact than the Legislature’s, at least by some measurements.
“The Legislature is not required, however, to produce a map that the plaintiffs, or I, or anyone else might prefer,” Lewis wrote. “The Legislature is only required to produce a map that meets the requirements of the Constitution.”
The judge also rejected a request from the League of Women Voters of Florida and other groups that had challenged the map to push back elections in seven districts affected by the rewrite. A lawyer for the voting-rights organizations promised an appeal, despite Senate President Don Gaetz’s request that the litigation end.
“I believe the people of Florida have been given fairness and finality by Judge Lewis’ decision and that going forward Democrats and Republicans ought to spend less time in the courtroom and more time working to build a better Florida,” Gaetz said.
Republican Congressman Daniel Webster, whose district was redrawn as a result of the court battle, appeared to be taking no chances. Webster has established a fund that could be used to pay legal expenses, the National Journal reported.
The filing, according to the National Journal, said the fund is “for the sole purpose of defraying the legal costs … in connection with his candidacy for an election to federal office.”
END OF THE GAY MARRIAGE BAN?
The state has had less success defending the ban on same-sex marriage, which Florida voters approved in 2008. A handful of state courts had already ruled that the restriction is unconstitutional, and a federal judge followed suit Thursday. The significance of U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s ruling is that it would be the first to apply statewide — if, that is, it takes effect.
Hinkle agreed to stay his ruling pending a likely appeal by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Between the Florida case and rulings in other states striking down similar bans on gay marriage, the issue is believed to be on a fast track to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The institution of marriage survived when bans on interracial marriage were struck down, and the institution will survive when bans on same-sex marriage are struck down,” Hinkle wrote in a 33-page ruling. “Liberty, tolerance, and respect are not zero-sum concepts. Those who enter opposite-sex marriages are harmed not at all when others, including these plaintiffs, are given the liberty to choose their own life partners and are shown the respect that comes with formal marriage.”
The ruling excited Floridians like Christian Ulvert, a Democratic political operative who married his partner, Carlos Andrade, last year in Washington, D.C. Ulvert and Andrade are among nine couples who challenged the marriage ban.
“It’s a judge recognizing my marriage to my husband in a state where I was born and raised. And it means that a law that discriminated against couples like me and Carlos is unconstitutional,” Ulvert said.
But Florida Family Policy Council President John Stemberger, who drafted and pushed the 2008 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, dismissed the idea that he and other supporters of the restriction are on the wrong side of history.
“A little boy who longs to have a father in the inner city — that will never be on the wrong side of history,” he said. “The little girl who has two dads and doesn’t have a mom and she wants someone to guide her through the changes that a woman’s body goes through — that’s never going to be on the wrong side of history. And the beauty of how a man and woman come together and life is born and the next generation springs from that, that’s never going to be on the wrong side of history.”
ONE STEP CLOSER TO THE BATTLE ROYAL
At least officially, both Scott, the Republican incumbent governor, and Crist, a former Republican running to regain his old job as a Democrat, have primary challengers.
Scott is up against a pair virtually unknown candidates, one of whom has drawn more press notice for her bizarre fundraising reports than her platform. Crist’s challenge is a bit more difficult, with former Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich having spoken to essentially every Democrat group that will hear her as she mounts a long-shot bid against Crist.
But the primary races have largely taken a back seat to the expected head-to-head battle between Florida’s last two governors. Scott tried to seize the initiative this week, touting plans to boost education spending and shore up the state’s infrastructure and meeting with climate scientists who don’t share the governor’s previous skepticism about man-made global warming.
In a series of campaign stops, he hyped a plan to reinforce the state’s roads, ports and airports.
“I am committed to keeping Florida moving by creating strategic investment opportunities to expand our state’s transportation system,” Scott, who appeared Monday in Jacksonville, said in a prepared statement.
The plan focuses heavily on expanding parts of the existing transit infrastructure by affirming support for the state Department of Transportation’s $41 billion 5-year work program.
Scott also promised to propose a budget in 2015 that would increase school spending to its highest level in history on a per-student basis. The old record is held, not coincidentally, by Crist.
“Because we were able to get Florida’s economy back on track, revenues are now projected to stay at a strong enough rate to support historic investments in education,” Scott said.
On both counts, critics said the governor, who rejected high-speed rail money and cut education spending early in his term, was experiencing politically convenient election-year conversions.
“No right-minded parent or teacher in this state believes Rick Scott, the same guy who cut K-12 education by $1.3 billion, cares about anything but holding onto power so he can keep giving away our tax dollars to corporations,” Crist campaign spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said in a statement.
It wasn’t clear that any similar turnabout was coming on climate change. In 2010, during his first run for office, Scott said he wasn’t convinced climate change was man-made. Since then, when asked how he’d handle the problem, he’s said he’s “not a scientist.”
Scientists met with Scott on Tuesday, but said they didn’t think they had made much of an impact on the governor, who said little other than to ask whether the professors’ students were getting jobs in Florida.
“He didn’t reflect on the science,” David Hastings, a professor of marine science and chemistry at Eckerd College, said after the meeting. “So he asked modest questions, but he did not ask questions that reflected his understanding of the material.”
STORY OF THE WEEK: Judge Terry Lewis rules that the Legislature’s proposed fix for the state’s congressional districts is in line with the Florida Constitution’s ban on gerrymandering, and that this year’s elections will go forward under a 2012 redistricting plan.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “So I can promise you: It’s not my anticipated lobbying office, ’cause I don’t see that in my future, ever. I would rather be struck by a bolt of lightning than to be up there lobbying those folks. They’re not my cup of tea.”—Attorney John Morgan, on whether his Tallahassee office might be a base for him to lobby.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida