Editorial: Amendment 1 Will Lead to Greater Transparency in Elections. Ray McNulty Must Offer a Correction
Politics is all about persuasion. Manipulation if you are trying to hide something. The passing of Amendment 1 may help bring to light what candidate's really think.
First off, Ray McNulty better check his facts. The writer apparently does not know election rules. In his October 24th My Take column, concerning the consequences of passing Amendment 1, Mr. McNulty wrote, “Currently, all of the county’s 120,600 registered voters have a say in who sits on our School Board. If the amendment passes, however, nearly 59,000 of them would be shut out of an all-Republican election.”
Um… that is not true. An all-Republican field for a local seat makes the primary election open, just as if it were a general election. The Sunshine Journal reached out Monday to Supervisor of Elections, Leslie Swan, who confirmed the process. She said, “If it is an all-Republican race, it is a ‘universal primary’ that is open to all registered voters in the county.”
For a real-world example, in the 2024 county commission race for District 3, Republican, Joe Earman received nearly 54% of the ‘universal’ vote winning against Republicans, Stephen Hume and David Shaw. Even in an all-Republican race with multiple candidates, over 50% of the votes wins the seat. As the election ballot rules state, “‘Universal Primary Contest’ refers to a contest in a primary election in which all candidates for an office have the same party affiliation and the winner of that contest will have no opposition in the general election. In a universal primary contest, all qualified electors may vote in the primary for that office, regardless of party affiliation.’”
A closed primary occurs only when a candidate files from another party, or an additional person applies as a write-in candidate.
Mr. McNulty cited the sheriff race as an example where many Democrats and Independents switched party registration to participate. It was estimated that 1200 did so because of the write-in declaration made early by Deborah Cooney. Ms. Cooney’s candidacy closed the Republican primary for Sheriff. Mr. McNulty needs to correct the record immediately.
Based on voter turnout, mosquitoes are more important than education
Amendment 1 would change voter participation. The most significant potential correction would be voter turnout. There is something wrong about filling local seats with only 34% of the vote cast during an election. It happens often in Indian River. That is what happened this year. While primary participation has ticked up since 2018 when it was 29% of voters, it falls woefully short of the participation rates of a general election.
At the close of polls on Monday, the Supervisor of Elections is reporting over 52,067 absentee and early votes cast in the 2024 general election. So far, that represents a 43% turnout which is already 9% higher than the 2024 primary.
When DeSantis won in 2018, voter turnout in the county was 66% in the general election. In his re-election bid of 2022, voter turn-out was 65%. In 2020, with Trump on the ballot for a second term against Biden, 79% of the county electorate turned out that November. Over 90,000 votes were cast for each Constitutional amendment that year. More than 76,000 votes were cast in each of the 2 Mosquito Control races. Yet, the 2020 primary had a meager 33.6% turnout with an average of 37,500 votes cast in each of the 2 school board races.
In 2020, mosquitoes received twice the attention at the ballot box compared to school board races.
Opponents of Amendment 1 prefer low turnout in school board races. They have better opportunity to control an outcome since the majority of Democrats are highly active. In the 2022 general election, over 5000 more Indian River County democrat voters cast ballots in local races. They ignored the statewide governor’s race at the top of the ticket between challenger, Charlie Crist and Ron DeSantis. Crist received 24,744 votes in 2022. Democrat school board candidate, Cindy Gibbs received 29,898 votes. In a rare run-off election in which 66,835 votes were cast for school board, Ms. Gibbs lost to Jackie Rosario.
Could Ms. Gibbs have won if she spent her time just focused on the general election? During the primary, Ms. Rosario was challenged by Ms. Gibbs and two others. Since nobody received over 50% of the ballots during the primary, the top 2 vote getters went on to the general election in a run-off.
The electorate is less responsive in a primary. As The Sunshine Journal noted in its August 2024 election analysis, these are base elections. The primaries happen during the most grueling heat-scorching summer months when campaigning is physically demanding, attention is very low and many voting residents have gone to their summer home. The snowbirds wait for mailers to vote absentee if they are concerned with the primary at all. Reaching absentee voters is a costly mailing operation to undertake. It requires more funding and assistance. It cultivates an environment for nefarious outside PACs and their distorted messaging. Special interest candidates have an advantage.
Current rules stifle candidate speech and transparency
Candidates are not allowed to mention party affiliation unless directly asked by voters. Party affiliation gives voters a great point of reference. It is one of the first questions asked of candidates on the campaign trail. “I was asked that almost continuously,” said school board member, Kevin McDonald, “My response was always that it is a non-partisan race and I cannot reveal my party, however, Governor DeSantis has appointed me to the position. The conversation usually ended with the reply, ‘that's all I need to know, you have my vote.’"
For all of their local intensity, Democrats do not have a significant base to win in a county-wide general election without the right candidate. Therefore, under the current non-partisan format, some have run as Republicans. Peggy Jones did exactly this strategy against Laura Zorc in 2020. During the race, Dr. Jones was a nominee for the Republican Executive Committee (REC) endorsement, even though she had given over 450 donations to Democrats since 2012 which should have disqualified her. Many of her donations went directly to the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee to replace Republicans with Democrats. She switched her voter registration to ‘Non-Party Affiliation (NPA)’ immediately following her victory.
In 2024, board-elect, David Dyer, campaigned with the progressive incumbent, Dr. Jones. Mr. Dyer is a registered Republican. Yet, he rallied with Democrats on many occasions and aligned with the platform of Dr. Jones. Mr. Dyer formally endorsed Dr. Jones at his first fundraiser and gave her campaign a maximum contribution in March. Dr. Jones was targeted for defeat by Governor DeSantis. To show his Republican credentials at the Taxpayer’s Association candidate forum in April, the multi-millionaire said he supported the DeSantis Education Agenda. Democrats ‘recommended” him for election. It would be against their rules to “endorse” a Republican.
In 2022, the Democrats recommended Republican, Teri Barenborg, who claimed to that year she was for the DeSantis Education Agenda. In 2021, she had already voted for mask mandates against the governor. She left the REC when they censured the school board chair, Brian Barefoot. Under his leadership, the District violated the laws of Florida and opposed the Republican governor. She made her statement of resigning from the local REC at a formal school board workshop to maximize the political effect.
She voted to keep pornographic books on the shelves in February of 2022. In following meetings as chairman, she censored anyone who tried to read into the record the evidence of pornography found in library books. On July 1st, 2023, Florida law, HB 1069, went into effect. It stated that if the evidence was not permitted to be read, the books were to be removed. In August, citizens read the evidence she kept censored as chair the previous year. The evidence was overwhelming, that even Mrs. Barenborg had to change her previous vote. All of the challenged books were forced into removal by law. Ultimately, 245 titles were pulled out of the district by unanimous vote.
In 2023, she followed Kamala Harris’s false statements about the comprehensive African American History Standards written by the DeSantis administration. She dismissed the explanatory statements of African American scholars who wrote the standards. Instead, she seized the political opportunity created by the Vice President. She wrote a letter to the Department of Education Commissioner, Manny Diaz, saying they should remove the clarification that was misstated by Ms. Harris who said it read, “slaves benefitted from slavery.”
In September, Mrs. Barenborg fought against distributing the US Constitution in our schools because a QR Code on the cover. The board agreed to cover the QR Code, after warning from Mrs. Barenborg about the unvetted website that was linked to it. The linked web page presented digital copies of the historical documents in the book at the website of the non-profit, 917 Society. In October, she asked to repeal the decision to remove Ban This Book from the District. The book recommends kids to use websites to find other “banned books” with pornographic materials. The websites in Ban This Book have not been vetted by the District.
Mrs. Barenborg’s suggested repeal was at the behest of the left wing group, Education Champions of IRC. The group is mentioned in a Florida Elections Commission investigation concerning alleged election violations. The group illegally distributed campaign endorsing materials on school property for Dr. Jones and Mr. Dyer.
Now, with Mrs. Barenborg’s help, they are trying to manipulate opinion on a removed library title, Ban This Book by author, Alan Gratz. In May, the board voted for its removal because the majority noted the book provides links to other pornographic materials. In 2023, Mrs. Barenborg was shamed into agreeing to remove some of those titles mentioned in Ban This Book.
Yet, in Mr. McNulty’s column, she claims,”I have been a Republican my whole life.”
The strategy could backfire if Amendment 1 passes and she is challenged in a primary. It would be a closed primary race if another democrat, independent or write-in candidate decided to jump in the District 4 race. How will Republican voters look at someone in a primary who has consistently voted left of center since 2021?
A partisan closed primary will force transparency. The Democrats will have to put a competitive candidate forward who can make it through the general election process. Amendment 1 would be a deterrent from choosing the current strategy of the manipulative cultivation of moderate left candidates who identify as Republicans in name only.