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Check your ballot status online

Check your ballot status online

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Featured, Manatee County.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Voters who requested mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election are reporting problems after ballots are sent in and the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office isn’t reaching out to fix them.

Anna Maria resident Gina Phillips said that after she sent in her mail-in ballot she used the Track Your Vote function on the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office website and noticed that out of the four-step tracking process, one of the indicators had turned red, indicating that there was an issue with her ballot. She reached out to the elections office and learned that there was an issue with her signature on the ballot, requiring the mailing and return of a “cure” affidavit along with copies of her identification and other paperwork to prove her identity. She said that no one from the elections office reached out to her to let her know that there was an issue with the mail-in ballot, leaving her worried that if she hadn’t been tracking it electronically she never would have known about the issue and her vote wouldn’t have been counted.

There are several reasons that a mail-in ballot could be rejected by the elections office or require additional information from the voter. Some of those reasons include the signature on the ballot not matching the one on file, the voter sending the ballot without adequate postage, ballots being mailed too late to be received by the elections office in time to be counted for the Nov. 3 election and the ballot not being filled out correctly.

When filling out your ballot, make sure to use only blue or black ink and fill in the circles completely without coloring outside the lines. Unless otherwise indicated, only vote for one selection in each area.

Once your ballot is completed, make sure to place it in the privacy shield before putting it in the return envelope. The privacy shield also serves as the instruction sheet for filling out the ballot.

Seal and sign the envelope in the indicated red box before sending it or returning the ballot to a drop-off location. Voters also must fill in their name in the voter’s certificate box on the back of the envelope.

Due to the size of the ballot, all mail-in ballots returned via the postal service require 70 cents in postage to be mailed. To make sure that your ballot is received at the elections office by 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, the postal service recommends mailing it no later than Oct. 24.

Ballots also can be dropped off at the elections ballot drop box located at the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office at 600 301 Blvd. W., Suite 108 in Bradenton. Ballots also can be dropped off at early voting locations between Oct. 19 and Nov. 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Early voting locations accepting mail-in ballot drop-offs include Lakewood Ranch Town Hall, the Palmetto library branch at 923 Sixth St. W., Rocky Bluff Library at 6750 U.S. Highway 301 N. in Ellenton, the Florida DOT Administration Office at 14000 S.R. 64 E. in Bradenton, and the Manatee County Utilities Administration Office at 4410 66th St. W. in Bradenton.

Mail-in ballot drop-offs will not be accepted at polling locations on Nov. 3 other than the Supervisor of Elections office.

To check the status of your mail-in ballot, visit the website. To check the status of your ballot and voter registration, enter your first name, last name and birthdate. Scroll down to the Current Election section where the status of your mail-in ballot will be displayed. If you’ve returned your ballot and all four of the indicators are blue or green, your ballot has been received and your vote counted with no issues. If any of the indicator numbers turns red, contact the supervisor of elections office as soon as possible to learn what the issue is and obtain the next steps to make sure your vote is counted.

To vote in person, check to make sure that the address on your driver’s license matches the address on your voter registration. If you’ve recently moved, a change to the address on your driver’s license won’t automatically change your voter registration. Make sure the two addresses match before going to vote in person.

In-person voting will take place Oct. 19 thru Nov. 1 with voting beginning the day of the election at 7 a.m. and closing at 7 p.m. In Anna Maria, voters can cast their in-person ballot at Roser Memorial Community Church, 512 Pine Ave. Bradenton Beach voters can go in person to the Bradenton Beach Fire Hall at 201 Second Ave. N., and Holmes Beach voters cast their in-person ballots at St. Bernard Catholic Church, 248 Harbor Drive S.

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Dueling parking garage amendments slated for fall ballot

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News.

BRADENTON BEACH – Bradenton Beach voters will likely see two parking garage questions on their general election ballots this fall.

Both parking garage questions are expected to be presented to city voters as proposed amendments to the city charter, but the Bradenton Beach Commission will simultaneously seek a judge’s ruling on the legality of the first parking garage ballot question.

The first parking garage ballot question addresses the city-wide parking garage prohibition first sought in 2018 by the Keep Our Residential Neighborhoods (KORN) political action committee formed by Reed Mapes and John Metz. The second ballot question will ask city voters if they want to allow one parking garage to be built in Bradenton Beach.

There are currently no proposals to build a parking garage in Bradenton Beach and the construction of a stand-alone, multi-level parking garage is currently prohibited by the city’s comprehensive plan and land development code (LDC). However, the comp plan and LDC prohibitions adopted by the commission in 2018 could be reversed by a future commission. A parking garage prohibition or parking garage allowance added to the city charter could only be reversed by city voters.

Both parking garage questions were formalized with the adoption of City Ordinance 20-518 during Monday morning’s special city commission meeting.

When presenting the ordinance on first reading on Thursday, Aug. 6, City Attorney Ricinda Perry said she made slight modifications to the KORN question that now reads as follows: “Should the charter of Bradenton Beach be amended to prohibit the building of any multi-level parking garages within the city of Bradenton Beach? All other parking garages, facilities and structures are allowed as permitted by local law.”

The second charter amendment question – suggested by Perry and first discussed by the commission in June – reads as follows: “Should the city amend its charter to: (1) Prohibit the approval, development and building of any stand-alone parking garage structures in all residential zoning districts; (2) Prohibit any multi-level parking garage, structure, or facility exceeding a total density of one multi-level parking garage within the entire municipal limits; and, (3) Establish a mandatory city-wide voter referendum to increase the multi-level parking garage density?”

When discussing the second question Thursday evening, Perry said, “County commission has now been asking for solutions to parking and I know that Carol Whitmore was one of the commissioners suggesting a parking garage. The (city) commission has made it very clear that they don’t want to see a parking garage in the city. Nonetheless, the city is putting it out there to see what the voters are wanting to do.”

According to Perry, if voters approve both amendments, neither would be enacted because they would be in conflict.

According to Perry, Monday was the final day to submit ballot items to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office for inclusion on the fall ballot.

Monday morning, the commission, minus Commissioner Jan Vosburgh, adopted by a 4-0 vote the following motion: “A motion to approve the second reading and adoption of Ordinance 20-518 to the extent of preserving a timely placement of ballot language on the 2020 general election, with a directive to Ricinda Perry to coordinate with Chuck Johnson and schedule a hearing in front of Judge Nicholas to argue that land use matters do not belong in a city charter.”

Commission actions

The city now seeks a ruling from Circuit Court Judge Edward Nicholas regarding the legality of the KORN amendment first sought in 2018. When the city commission refused to place on the 2018 ballot the parking garage question and three additional charter amendment questions proposed by KORN, KORN filed a lawsuit against the city.

In March, Nicholas ruled the city did not have to place KORN’s charter amendment questions on a future ballot. Nicholas felt the city addressed most of KORN’s concerns via the alternative charter amendments recommended by the Charter Review Committee and approved by city voters. When issuing his ruling, Nicholas said he would consider future arguments regarding the parking garage question that had not been posed to city voters.

Johnson represented the city in that case. On June 18, Perry told the commission KORN attorney Robert Hendrickson emailed Johnson regarding the lingering parking garage issue.

“It’s not been ordered by the judge to put it on the ballot, but Mr. Hendrickson has indicated KORN will continue to take this to court and try to force the city to put it on the ballot. Do you want to put it on the ballot and kill that argument or do you want to fight it in court?” Perry said that day.

After much debate that day regarding the legalities of addressing a land-use issue in the city charter in contrast to current state law, and the legal precedent that might establish, the commission voted 3-2 to move forward with two parking garage ballot questions.

On Monday, Mayor John Chappie asked Perry if the commission could place both parking garage initiatives on the ballot but still seek a ruling from Nicholas.

“If the city feels strongly that a parking garage, as a land-use regulation, doesn’t belong in the charter, you could still appeal this ordinance to the judge as a new cause of action,” Perry said of the city appealing its own ordinance.

“As it relates to the current lawsuit by KORN, he could issue a mandate that this be taken off the ballot and not voted on. He could direct that to the supervisor of elections. I believe we could still go to Judge Nicholas and say we did this in good faith moving it forward, but we still strongly object to it and feel it should not be put in front of voters,” Perry said.

She expressed confidence that a hearing could be held before November and it was noted mail voting begins in October.

“On Nov. 3, if it all got voted on and it all got passed, it could still be thrown out by the judge. He could basically nullify the votes that came in,” Perry said.