Political Bloviation

I’m in line to vote. I stopped by the north Tampa location 3 times. It was always 1:30 wait there each time. I also stopped by the West Chase library and finally ended up at the west Tampa library on Union St. So far I’ve been in line for more than an hour.

While cooking in the Florida sun I met Phyllis Busansky, who’s running against the incumbent Republican supervisor of elections Buddy Johnson. We spoke for a few minutes. I told her that given everyone expected record turn out this election it was inexcusable that there were still 2 hour lines to vote at all 3 early voting locations I’d been to today.

It’s a slam dunk for her to work the excessive lines at polling places promising to do better, if elected. It’s difficult to imagine doing worse. Either Buddy is incompetent or he’s not interested in making voting a simple efficient process. She has my vote after this experience.

The West Tampa Library is in a heavily black and Latino area. It’s taken about 2:30 to get into the building. I can’t help but think that the lack of resources looks a lot like a soft voter suppression tactic. Weed out the weak ones by making the stand in line for two or three hours.

Here’s Phyills Busansky and I.

The line appears to have gotten longer since I got here.

Update: After voting the “shorter” line.

That’s the side of the building the line wrapped from the front door, around the side, along the back, down the alley and out onto Howard Ave.

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