April 3, 2005
LARGO - Nearly a third of the record 912 absentee ballots cast for the March 1 city election came from residents of 55-and-older mobile home parks or assisted living facilities, a St. Petersburg Times review has found.
Mary Gray Black won election to the Largo City Commission Seat 1 that day on the strength of voters who cast absentee ballots in unprecedented numbers. Of Black's total of 1,277 votes, nearly half were from absentee ballots.
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About 33 percent of the 2,724 ballots cast in the March 1 election came from absentee voters. Both the percentage and the raw number are records, according to the Pinellas County supervisor of elections office.
By comparison, 11.4 percent of the 5,832 ballots cast in Largo in 2003 were absentee. The figure was 12.1 percent in 2002, 17.4 percent in 2001 and 7.6 percent in 2000, a presidential election year. In 1999, 9.8 percent of ballots were absentee.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/04/03/Northpinellas/Popular_polling_site_.shtmlWow, that's a big increase in absentee voters. Now why would the Repugs in FL decide to make it so much easier to vote absentee? And why would they be so interested in trailer parks? I wonder how many people they 'helped' vote down here?