Hi from Florida

Swing State Florida

By Paul Weiss
Oct 29, 2008, 8:10am

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!

Swing State Florida

By Paul Weiss
Oct 26, 2008, 10:18am

With a little more than one week to go, the election is all that is being talked about here in New Smyrna Beach. On Friday afternoon, Joe Biden's wife Jill visted our community. More than 500 people showed up to hear her and fill the room. She had to be interrupted at least 20 times with applause. Early voting here in Volusia County has hit 27,000 in the first week with another week to go. That would be 10% of the number of people who voted four years ago. There are another 40,000 voters who have applied for absentee votes and I think about 30,000 have already been returned.

I was in the early voting site in Deltona, Fl on Saturday. More than 1,200 people voted. They had to wait in line for more that one and one-half hours to get their ballot. At this site there was a very large hispanic turnout. All the polls in this area point to an Obama victory, but this is Florida!

Paul Weiss

Go Bills

Swing State Florida

By Paul Weiss
Oct 23, 2008, 11:02pm

Hi to all my friends in Batavia and Genesee County. This is Paul Weiss. Many of you may remember me from the City Council and Notre Dame High School. I now live in New Smyrna Beach, FL and as many of you might guess, I have become involved in Democratic Party politics, especially the Obama campaign.

Because Florida is a swing state and my county (Volusia) was one of the few counties to support John Kerry and Al Gore, the campaign is much more interesting that anything I have ever experienced.

Barack Obama was in Daytona Beach a couple of weeks ago and John McCain was here today. Tomorrow Joe Biden's wife will be here and many people believe Hillary Clinton will make a campaign stop bfore election day.

The major effort now is early voting. There are five places you can go to in the County to vote any day between 8 am and 4 pm. In just four days, more than 17,000 voters have already cast their ballots. Democrats are out voting Republicans by 2 to 1 ratio in early voting.The Obama campaign is very organized to get out the early vote and they expect a big effort on Saturday. The Obama campaign is independent of the Democratic Party and they have 10 paid staff members in the county along with hundreds of volunteers. The McCain campaign runs through the local Republican party. I'm not quite sure what they are doing as about all I see from them are lawn signs.

I'll try to keep you posted.

Remember--Go Bills!

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