Editorial: Scout motto for precinct voters: ‘Be prepared’
The Scout motto “Be Prepared” is important to keep in mind Tuesday if you’re going to your precinct to vote.
With the growing popularity of mail balloting and early voting, on recent Election Days, there haven’t been waiting lines at precincts.
Early voting methods had Collier and Lee elections offices as of Monday reporting a remarkable 50 percent turnout already.
Even so, many will vote at precincts Tuesday. The ballot is long, with 12 state constitutional amendments, a sales tax referendum in each county and federal, state, county and local candidate decisions.
We urge those going to the precincts between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday to be prepared to keep lines moving. That entails being sure you go to the correct assigned precinct, have proper identification such as a state driver's license or official Florida ID card, and have your decisions made and perhaps written down in personal notes or on your sample ballot to expedite marking your ballot.
Recap of endorsements
Federal and state races:
• For U.S. Senate, we encourage undecided voters to review the issues we’ve outlined in our editorial available online at naplesnews.com to assist in making their decision.
• Francis Rooney, R-Naples, incumbent, for U.S. House District 19 covering coastal Collier and Lee counties.
• Mary Barzee Flores, D-Miami, for U.S. House District 25 including parts of Miami-Dade, Collier and Hendry counties.
• The governor’s race is evidence that open primaries should be considered. For this statewide office, we can’t agree as a board to recommend either the Democratic or Republican candidate.
• Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, incumbent, for Florida Senate District 28.
• Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, incumbent, for state House District 76.
• Jennifer Boddicker, D-Naples, for state House District 80.
• Ana Maria Rodrigues, R-Doral, for state House District 105.
• Bob Rommel, R-Naples, incumbent, for state House District 106.
• Amira Fox, R-Fort Myers, for Southwest Florida state attorney.
• Ashley Moody, R-Tampa, for Florida attorney general.
• Matt Caldwell, R-Fort Myers, for Florida agriculture commissioner.
• We were unable to interview Jimmy Patronis, Florida chief financial officer, whose agency was responding to Hurricane Michael. We’d also consider Democrat Jeremy Ring a good choice.
• Yes to merit retention of Florida Supreme Court and appellate judges.
Local races:
• Penny Taylor, R-Naples, incumbent, for Collier County Commission District 4.
• Cecil Pendergrass, R-Fort Myers, incumbent, for Lee County Commission District 2.
• Nicholas Alexander, Fort Myers, for Lee County School Board District 6 at-large, nonpartisan.
• Victor Rios (incumbent), Erik Brechnitz and Jerry Swiacki for Marco Island City Council, nonpartisan.
• Diane Flagg, Arnold Klinsky and Ramon Chao for North Collier fire district board, nonpartisan.
• Brian Cross and David Stedman, both incumbents, for Greater Naples fire district board, nonpartisan.
• James Murphy, incumbent, for Bonita Springs fire district board, nonpartisan.
Ballot issues:
• We recommend “yes” votes for constitutional Amendments 2 (assessment increase cap), 4 (restoring voting rights), 12 (government ethics) and 13 (phasing out dog racing).
• We’ve recommended “no” on Amendments 1 (homestead exemption increase) and 3 (statewide votes on casinos) and to reject 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11 because they contain multiple topics that aren’t closely enough related.
• We’ve recommended “yes” on the Collier County local-option sales tax of 1 percent per dollar for a maximum of seven years.
• We’ve recommended “yes” on the Lee schools sales tax of a half-percent per dollar for 10 years.