Group raises concerns about straw poll

Opponents of Lakewood Ranch's incorporation remain concerned registered voters in the community are not getting ballots as promised.

At a press conference today, Friends leaders Gary Berns and Bob Hendel said after hearing some registered out-of-state voters had not received ballots, the group contacted all 3,700 of the group's email subscribers to determine how many had not received ballots.

About 150 individuals responded, saying they had not received ballots. Friends volunteers determined, of those, only 129 actually were registered voters and therefore supposed to receive a ballot.

Berns said Friends members are concerned registered voters are being unintentionally disenfranchised.

"We're not pointing fingers at anybody," Berns said. "We know there's a problem. We don't know how endemic the problem is."

Friends members are concerned the number of disenfranchised voters could be much higher and could affect results of the straw poll. The group leading incorporation has said it would not submit a special act for incorporation to the legislature without a solid majority of voter support. 

They also hope the Lakewood Ranch Incorporation Study Committee, the organization that organized the straw poll, will consider extending the deadline so all registered voters have an opportunity to turn in their ballot.

Brian Jones, president of Andrick and Associates, the company that handled the printing and mailing of the ballots, has said his company sent out ballots to nearly 12,000 registered voters. Of those, about 1,400 voters had ballots sent directly to the forwarding address on record with the U.S. Postal Service.

Jones could not be reached by press time for comment about the 129 ballots.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].