Local political parties forsake voter registration at their peril

Former President Barack Obama, when encouraging people to register to vote, said to a crowd of unregistered young people, “You wouldn’t let your grandparents pick your playlist. Why would you let them pick your representative who’s going to determine your future?”

A successful political party must register voters, educate voters, recruit candidates, train candidates how to campaign, gather resources for a campaign, educate voters, and get out the vote.

An examination of voter registration trends in Leon County is quite illuminating and for one local party should be perceived as a major red flag of warning.

The chart shows that Republican voter registration, as a percentage of all registered voters, has remained relatively flat. It is at 28% today, it was at 28.4% in 2007, and 27.7% in 1999. Over 29 years the percentage of Republicans  among registered voters has remained the same. Evan Power, the local Republican Party chair can brag, but the number suggest inertia is pushing a flat line for his party here in Leon County.

As it nears slipping below the 50% threshold in registered voters, the Leon County Democratic chair Ryan Ray is aware of the decline in the Democratic registered voters but seems determined not to take decisive action to alter the downward path. Since his ascension to chair, the percentage of voters registered Democratic has declined 1.5% while the percentage of Republican registered voters has increased 1.3%.

Jeremy Matlow, the person who effectively employs the chair, engages in a smashmouth approach to politics. The chair’s fervent support of this approach will either encourage the migration of supporters of other commissioners to another party or at least discourage support for the Leon County Democratic Party.

When someone controls your lunch bucket it means they control you. That is one reason why when I was county chair for 20 years that I did not seek a job with any local governmental body. At times you have to choose between doing what is best for the party versus what the ambitions of your employer are.

Every change in election laws are designed in such a manner that some groups benefit while others are disadvantaged. This is very apparent in voter registration numbers over the past five years. Neither the local Republican chair or the county Democratic Party chair have employed a work around to promote widespread voter registration in Leon County.

Third party voter registration efforts over the last five years, which includes outreach by the two local major political parties, only accounts for one in seven persons registering to vote in Leon County. The DHSMV, by itself, accounts for nearly one in two of all newly registered voters. Of interest to me is the Supervisor of Elections’ Office only directly registered one in 20 new voters during the last five years.

The largest increase in voters occurred during the last presidential election cycle. The year before the last presidential election saw a strong increase in registered voters. The year before this presidential election year had a good increase but not as much as in 2019. This should be considered a clue to the local party chairs as to the enthusiasm of voters for the 2024 presidential rematch.

Voter registration in Florida has played a key role in determining election results.

Before the 1980 presidential election the Ronald Reagan campaign heavily invested in voter registration drives in Little Havana and Miami-Dade County (as it is now known). After President Jimmy Carter was defeated, the next two election cycles saw a tremendous swing in Florida’s rural counties away from the Democratic Party. While the He-Coon got elected as governor in 1990, many of the yellow dog Democrats in rural counties continued to move away from the party.

The warning flags are up here in Leon County. The local Democratic party needs leadership that bring all elements of the party together.

Preaching unity is harder than promoting division. I had plenty of experience in both strong-arming candidates and in unifying various elements of the party. The current chair better learn to represent all Democratic voters regardless of personal ideology. The voter registration numbers, and voter turnout figures, are warnings of what is to come over the next decade if he fails to act.

I’ll close by noting, if you do not sign up to vote in a timely way then you are not, and cannot be, a voter in the upcoming election. If not registered, there is still time to do so. I would do so forthwith. Learn more at www.leonvotes.gov/ .

Jon M. Ausman is the longest serving chair of the Leon County Democratic Party in Leon County’s history (April 1980 to January 2000). He can be reached at 850-321-7799 or at ausman@embarqmail.com.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Local political parties forsake voter registration at their peril