In case you haven't heard, the ballot that Florida registered voters will use for the November election is extremely long. How long, depends on the county, though.
Craig Latimer is the chief-of-staff to Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Earl Lennard. On Monday night, he spoke to the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee about that lengthy six page ballot, advising them (and advising them to tell others) to vote absentee if possible, because it will take more than a few minutes to complete the whole thing.
"If you even come in prepared, you're going to be standing there for while," he said, later adding that if a voter hasn't read the ballot in advance of voting, "you're looking at a good 20-30 minutes, depending on how fast you read, to get to go through this."
Even though it's seven weeks before the general election, the ballots will soon be in the hands of voters. This Friday, the first ballots will be sent overseas.
This article appears in Sep 13-19, 2012.