Hometown Democracy dead for now
But Backers Question Why

By RICK BERRY
Published: 13 March 2008
The Pelican Press
Although the Florida Hometown Democracy (FHD) movement - which would have given local voters the right to veto efforts to allow faster growth - has been declared dead by the state for the 2008 election cycle, backers say it didn't die for lack of petition signatures, but was killed by powerful opponents through the legislature, abetted by the Elections Division of the secretary of state's office.

Hometown Democracy co-founder Leslie Blackner believes her campaign for 2008 might not be over.

Blackner sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist and the state's 67 election supervisors Monday demanding information under the public records law and citing several "systematic errors" and violations of election law in the petition validation process, including the rejection of petitions from voters who moved, were purged from the rolls or have not been active voters - contrary to law and division rules.

The letter also demands those errors be corrected and amended count totals provided.

Blackner said the Division of Elections "is no longer an impartial third party, and as a part of the secretary of state's office is highly politicized.

"Remember Katherine Harris? Elections should be an independent department of its own."

Blackner cited the division as complicit in the defeat of FHD's petition drive, alleging manipulation of the system and knuckling under to pressure from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida and other powerful pro-business groups in Tallahassee.

Elections division spokesman Sterling Ivey said nothing could be further from the truth.

"I understand Florida Hometown Democracy's frustration," he said. "But we are charged with implementing the laws as they are written by the legislature," the author of some legal roadblocks aimed squarely at FHD.

"The secretary [of State, Kurt Browning] was elections supervisor in Pasco County for 28 years," Ivey said, "and his only interest is supporting the local supervisors and running the best elections possible."

Hometown Democracy did alarm and anger the state's business power structure with its proposal to subject to voter approval every attempt by counties and cities to permit increased growth by amending their comprehensive land use plans.

Those plans already accommodate significant growth, and Hometown Democracy's backers argue that pro-growth forces have more clout with local and state governments and are better financed than ordinary citizens who feel enough is enough - and a ballot box veto for voters would better level the planning field.

Hundreds of thousands of Floridians agreed, and started signing petitions to put the land use election question on this November's ballot. Then the business groups, through their friends in the legislature, began crafting roadblocks.

Aware of the anti-growth sentiment sweeping the state, opponents argued that it was legislation by ballot box, that localities would be burdened by dozens of additional election measures, and maybe special elections, and that voters had neither the time nor expertise to evaluate the nuances of complex development plans.

So the chamber formed Floridians for Smarter Growth and raised more than $3 million to fight FHD.

The legislature passed a law allowing opponents of ballot measures to conduct "revocation campaigns," requiring the elections division to promptly supply them with names and addresses of everyone signing certain petitions so they could write or call to persuade the voters to take back their signatures.

Hometown Democracy was the only petitioning group - of more than 40 such campaigns - to be targeted for revocation. And the opponents' lawyers convinced the elections division to supply information allowing them to contact FHD supporters who signed the petition up to 150 days before the law was passed.

In its campaign, the chamber-allied group sent out a letter to signers claiming to be a growth-control group, stating that Hometown Democracy was actually staging a pro-growth ruse run through its "special interests and their slick lawyers [who] will rig the system to put our future in the hands of their cronies," who are determined to "destroy Florida's scenic beauty." Many of those contacted fell for it. Nearly 12,000 took back their approval.

Floridians for Smarter Growth also began a bogus anti-growth petition drive of its own, which distracted and confused supporters who thought they were supporting Hometown Democracy.

It hired away FHD's petition gatherers en masse, paying them far more per signature.

Then late last year and into January, as FHD was coming up on its Feb. 1 deadline for this November's ballot, the chamber group inundated local supervisors with petitions to swamp their staffs which had to both verify signatures and prepare for the Jan. 29 presidential preference primary.

Browning and Assistant Division of Elections Director Sarah Jane Bradshaw went so far as to send out a memo "reminding" local elections supervisors that during January the primary election "is the priority," but to attempt to verify signatures as well, if possible.

And, although state law and elections division rules say the petitioners have until the Feb. 1 deadline for filing signed petitions with local supervisors, Bradshaw told them that, actually: "Today, Dec. 31, is the deadline for petitioning groups to submit petitions to you [because supervisors may take up to 30 days to verify signatures] to ensure that petitions are ... included in the Feb. 1 certification."

And in many offices, verification came to a screeching halt, Blackner said.

Bradshaw also wrote: "It is also suggested that petitions be verified in the order received in your office. Please do not verify petitions depending on 'how close' they are to reaching the required number based on the division's web site," as Hometown Democracy moved closer to that number and opponents flooded the office with petition signatures.

Especially targeted were key congressional districts in Sarasota, South Florida and the Panhandle, where FHD needed a specified number of valid signatures.

It worked. At the cutoff, Hometown Democracy fell some 58,300 signatures short of the 611,009 it needed, although Blackner, a lawyer, said the group will now shoot for the November 2010 election, and signatures still count if under four years old.

Blackner said Hometown Democracy submitted more than 814,000 signatures, which should have been enough, even with a 25 percent invalidation rate. But how many were considered, validated or forwarded to Tallahassee, she doesn't know.

"I think we got screwed," she said. "I don't think all of our petitions were counted. And I think that is unlawful.... I've been told in many cases they double-counted the revocations, and the state has done a number of other things to make it virtually impossible for petitioners to win.

"They've tightened the deadline, from August to Feb. 1; they're requiring 60 percent votes for passage now, they're allowing revocations and letting them do it retroactively - go back and contact people who signed 150 days before the law was even passed.

"And then they back up the deadline another 30 days to allow time to count and won't require signatures to be validated during that time? In any election system, time to count is built into the deadline.

"What they're doing is intentionally eroding the citizens' initiative process, and that is enshrined in the First Amendment, too, but they treat it so contemptuously."

In 2010, the number of signatures required for a ballot position will jump precipitously, because it is based on the number of people voting in the previous general election, and this is a presidential election year.

"But we'll do it in 2010," Blackner said. "People who learn about how they played the system this time are going to be angry, and they won't forget."

Spokesman Sterling Ivey is leaving the secretary of state's office to work for Crist. His replacement starts next week. Her previous employer: the Florida Chamber of Commerce.