The big political news continues to be early voting. Republican Governor Charlie Crist has extended the hours for early voting by four hours every week day and for four more hours over the weekend. This will allow more working people to get to the early voting sites to cast their ballots. As of Tuesday, almost 40,000 people have voted in Volusia County and we expect that number to hit 70,000 before early voting closes on Sunday.
The interesting thing about the extension of early voting is that it was done by an emergency executive order of the Governor. Governor Crist was on John McCain's Vice Presidential short list but lost out to Governor Palin. The Republican Supervisor of Elections in Volusia County called Governor Crist's order iresponsible. (Elections in Florida do not work the way they do in New York. There is an elected Suprevisor of Election who controls the entire process. There is no bi-partisan election commission like there is in New York.) This Supervisor of Election defied the Governor's order and refused to keep four early voting sites open on Tuesday. She said she wanted to go to court and get the Governor's order thrown out. Remember, this is Florida.
Governor Crist said his decision was not political but rather made for the people of Florida. He is being praised by the press and the Democratic Party. The local Republican party is enraged.
Senator Obama and President Bill Clinton will be in the Orlando area for a rally later tonight. This should be interesting as this is the first time they are appearing together.
Paul Weiss
Go Bills!
