Community
Community News
Upcoming Voter Outreach Events
3/5/2010
Elections Office Welcomes New Voter Outreach Manager
2/4/2010
The Seminole County Elections office has named Helen Ehrgott as the new Voter Outreach Manager. In this role, Ehrgott is responsible for facilitating voter registration and community education events. She implements tactics which will increase the number of registered voters in Seminole County and is in charge of outreach and education programs to organizations throughout the community.Community Ideas from Crowdsourcing Appeal (thus far)
2/2/2010
Two weeks ago, the Seminole County Elections Office asked residents to provide us with ideas for voter registration and turnout. The attached list is their input.Seminole Elections Office to "Crowdsource" Voter Outreach
1/20/2010
The Seminole County Elections office is turning to a reliable source of ideas to help implement the 2010 Community Voter Outreach Plan: the residents. Spurred by the success of companies like Netflix and Pepsi, who have used crowdsourcing to implement either product or community improvement, the Elections Office is using the community of ideas from the residents to help discover and implement new voter outreach efforts for 2010.
In 2008, Seminole County was among the top counties in the state for voter turnout at 79.8% (vs. state average of 75.2%). Given that historically turnout for non-Presidential election years is significantly lower, the office is looking for ideas and avenues of implementation that will help to increase or maintain registration and turnout numbers to again top the state average for 2010.
Seminole County Elections prepares for bilingual ballots in 2012
2/3/2009
Elections after the 2010 Census will likely have a new twist for Seminole County voters: a bilingual ballot. After each decade's census, the United States Department of Justice (under the set formulas in federal Voting Rights Act) determines which counties and municipalities fall under the guidelines for a bilingual ballot. Current jurisdictions here: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/sec_203/203_notice.pdf.
Supervisor of Elections Michael Ertel believes the county will be included on the list, "Our office has a very detailed and accurate method for analyzing the demographics of the community, and we believe that the Department of Justice will include our county on their next list of counties that will have bilingual ballots. In anticipation of our crossing the legal threshold for 2012, we have been implementing our preparation plans for the past year. The best way to implement a major change in operations is to be informed, be prepared, and be ready to act so a transition is seamless, effective and cost-sensitive."
In 2008 the county implemented a Bilingual Outreach, Registration and Opportunity Plan, which was a huge success. In fact, according to numbers from the U.S. Census and the Florida Department of State, among Florida's large counties for the November election, Seminole County had the highest rate of Hispanic residents being registered to vote AND Seminole County also had the highest Hispanic voter turnout rate among the large counties, as well. The plan was such a success that the county was a featured presenter at the best practices session of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections conference last month.
The 2009 element of the implementation is the formation of a bilingual ballot integration committee comprised of a select group of leaders in the Seminole County Hispanic community. The President of the Puerto Rican Elections Commission has been invited to assist, and chairs of the local Democratic, Libertarian and Republican parties have already agreed to take part. The composition of the invited attendees include the current presidents of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce; the publisher of LaPrensa; Seminole County's highest-ranking Hispanic elected official, Tax Collector Ray Valdes; an Hispanic candidate for state office, as well as an Hispanic candidate for mayor; the national president of the Republican National Hispanic Alliance of the United States; the executive director of Latino Leadership; and the former editor of El Sentinel who is currently in marketing communications.
The ad-hoc committee's first meeting will be February 3 at 6:30 in the evening at the Seminole County Supervisor of Elections office (1500 East Airport Blvd., Sanford).
