Know where to vote

Scott Peelen has lived in Winter Park since before 1984, and in that time, he said he's built a reputation as the "superest of super voters," not missing a single election in more than 20 years.

But that doesn't mean the financial investment broker and his wife haven't gone to the wrong polling location during a municipal election, like the one to be held Tuesday, March 9. That's because during a county-wide election, there are 16 places in Winter Park to cast a vote, but during a municipal election, there are only five, which means the Peelens have to vote somewhere else.

Or, as Peelen said, you have to check what phase the moon is in and whether or not there are smoke signals over Winter Park before casting your vote.

"People don't know where in the hell to vote. And it is nuts," said Peelen, who personally calls Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles after every municipal election and complains about the change. "It's utterly loopy that the people of Winter Park can't vote in the same place every election. … It results in less participation in the election."

It's not a new problem for Cowles, rather, it's something he deals with every year. Every time there's a municipal election in Orange County, he makes a point of reminding voters to go to the polling location on their sample ballot, which may not be the same location as on their voter registration card.

At the root, the issue is a budgetary one. Because Orange County doesn't allow municipal elections to piggyback off the countywide elections, like neighboring Seminole County does, cities have to foot the bill of every election.

And to save costs, cities drop the number of polling locations down: In Winter Park, it drops from 16 to five; in Maitland, it drops from five to two.

"That's exactly why the city is doing it: to save the cost of doing the city election," Cowles said. "That's a major issue. People get frustrated."

The budgeted cost of the 2010 election in Winter Park is $37,800, and Maitland expects to spend $16,200 on the same election cycle. Neither city had estimates available of what it would cost to open all polling locations on election day.

Maitland Mayor Doug Kinson said he's been known to go to the wrong polling location on election day — although, to be fair, that was when he lived in the city of Orlando. He said the issue isn't as big in Maitland because there are less polling locations, and the issue is easily resolved with good communication.

"I don't really think it's that great an issue in the city of Maitland," Kinson said. "If I lived in Winter Park or Orlando, I think it would be a bigger issue in respect to the voter."

The issue isn't as pronounced in neighboring Seminole County. That's because cities have the option of piggybacking on county elections, which doesn't cost the cities anything and is open to all voting locations. So the only cities that have to pay for elections are cities such as Oviedo that have staggered two-year terms, resulting in off-year elections.

Cowles said that Orange County forced all municipal elections into their own cycle in 1992, in part because of the length of bilingual ballots in Orange County. One of the advantages, he said, is that it gives more media coverage to local elections.

"Think about the presidential election than 2008: Who gets more ink?" Cowles asked. "The presidential race or the Winter Park municipal election?"

Election costs in two cities

Budgeted Winter Park election costs:

Supervisor of Election support: $20,000

Poll Workers $10,500

Ballots: more than $7,000, went to double side,

Advertising costs: approximately $300

Total: $37,800

Maitland:

Total $16,200 (costs not broken down)