Ballots are always a weighty issue in election years. But you may be surprised to find out just how weighty they were this year.
12 tons.
And that’s just for the primary. St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Penny Halyburton ordered enough ballots for every registered voter in the county to participate in August’s primary elections. Those ballots weighed in at 23,796 pounds.
According to calculations based on information from the Sierra Club’s Web site, almost 300 trees had to give their all so you could exercise your constitutional right to vote.
Just two years ago, paper ballots seemed destined for the history books in Florida. After the 2000 Presidential election debacle that made hanging chads a part of the national lexicon, elections offices around the state rushed to upgrade to the latest voting equipment. For most, that eventually lead to touch screen voting machines.
But when people began to realize that without a paper record, there would no way to manually recount election results, a movement began that earlier this year resulted in the Florida Legislature passing a bill that required the return of paper ballots.
Nobody bothered to ask the trees how they felt about it.
And you probably shouldn’t ask them how they feel about low voter turnouts, either.
Statewide, about 15 percent of registered voters actually showed up for the primary elections this year. That means 85 percent of the ballots went unused.
St. Johns County actually used more of its ballots than most counties -- more than 20 percent of registered voters turned out here, but even so, of the 8 pallets those ballots arrived on, only one was completely emptied in the primary, and of the 23,796 pounds of paper only 4,795 pounds were actually used. That means 19,001 pounds were wasted -- and 229 trees died in vain.
Lest you think the waste ends there, bear in mind those ballots had to be shipped from the printer to the Supervisor of Elections office in St. Augustine. Then they had to be unpacked, checked, and safeguarded until the election. Then they had to be divided up, re-packed and delivered to precincts all over the county. After the polls closed, they were once again packed up and returned to the Supervisor of Elections.
If there had been a problem with the election, they would have had to recount the ballots — at least once electronically and perhaps even a second time by hand. Since there wasn’t a problem, and the election results have now been certified, they are on their way to the recycling plant -- right?
Wrong. Instead all 12 tons are on their way to a storage facility in Hastings for safe-keeping, where they will stay for at least the next two years.
And if you’re afraid they’ll get lonely, don’t be. Another batch of ballots will be joining them after the General Election in November.
*23,796 pounds is exactly how much St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Penny Halyburton said the primary election ballots weighed. 20.15 percent is the voter turnout Halyburton reported after the Primary Election. 83 pounds of paper is what the Sierra Club Web site says the average tree will produce. The eight pallets to one pallet anecdote was told to Recorder photojournalist Jesse Jones by a Supervisor of Elections staff member. All other calculations are approximate. Persons with disabilities may still use touch-screen voting machines, and Halyburton said one will be available at every polling place in the county during the November election.
September 15th 2008 - 2:56PM