--- I keep touting the praises of Polk County Supervisor of Election Lori Edwards, because she and her staff usually do a great job and catch any problems before they become an issue...unlike her counterparts elsewhere across the state. Granted, the whole issue of disqualifying potential voters just because they failed to check the box declaring they are U.S. citizens is a crock. It is a duplication of the declaration at the bottom of the application where the person signs stating that he/she is a U.S. citizen and eligible to vote! But you've got to point the finger to some extent at the SOEs in those counties as well for, well, being lazy. Here in Polk, Lori and her staff make the time to contact the voter if there is ANY issue with the application as standard procedure so they can be corrected prior to the deadline.

According to the Lakeland Ledger article today, out of approximately 10,000 applications received between August 1 and October 1, only 14 had issues with the citizen box. Those individuals were contacted, and several returned with corrected applications.

--- Speaking of Lori and her crew, they put their optical scan voting machines to work yesterday in Lakeland. It was "Politics In The Park", held by the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce in downtown's Munn Park, continuing a long tradition of bringing candidates and voters together in an outdoor setting with food, music, and a non-scientific straw poll.

A couple of issues, though.

1) Why have it on a early Thursday afternoon? Four until seven PM seems kind of untimely for a lot of people.

2) And $25 a person for a plate of food and to participate in the straw poll? At least it is less than the $50 the Haines City Chamber is charging at their Pig Roast at the Greenlefe Country Club and Resort (if they're still having it; it's been rescheduled at least once due to the hurricanes). And this was without any headlining candidates present, with U.S. Senate candidates Betty Castor and Mel Martinez preparing for their debate, Congresspersons/Bush lapdogs Adam Putnam and Ginny Brown-Waite within the Beltway. That mainly only local/state legislative candidates left to court the mostly Republican Chamber members and others present.