Few Know Their Local, State, and Congressional Districts

Yesterday I wrote about my sample ballot for the upcoming primary election on August 30...mine is for Democratic-registered voters.  I mentioned a tough primary contest going on in the Florida House of Representatives District 21, which is very close to the subdivision I live in...but I actually live in District 20, less than a quarter mile from the boundary line between the two.  My district is represented by Clovis Watson, a Democrat...and I just discovered that he is running unopposed by any Republicans in the general election.  But almost literally just across the street, Republicans are furiously slinging mud at each other for the seat being vacated by Keith Perry, who is running for the State Senate District 8 seat this election against Democrat Rod Smith.  The main GOP contenders in District 21 are Chuck Clemons, a familiar name in Gainesville politics, and Wenda Lewis, a political neophyte whose family business is oil.  The two have been accusing each other of bad things...like that Clemons used to be one of those nasty Democrats and that Lewis's company was cited in the past for some transgression.  Both are claiming to be the conservative's conservative, each brandishing "A" grades from the NRA...and Clemons is boasting  tea party congressman Ted Yoho's support.  Besides these two, there is a third candidate in this district for the Republicans, Tim Rogers, who doesn't appear to be interested in jumping into the mud pit with them.  Whoever wins the primary will face Democrat Maryhelen Wheeler in the general election...

Watching the ads of Clemons and Lewis on TV constantly probably gives a lot of folks living in Gainesville the idea that they should be deciding which one to vote for.  Of course, if you're not a Republican, then you don't get to play.  And if you can, then you just might want to consider that third candidate, Rogers, before you make up your mind.  But this election is only for the western half of Gainesville...and points beyond...and not for the eastern side.  But I think folks are still confused about that: I saw a Tim Rogers sign in my own neighborhood...maybe that homeowner supports him, but he or she cannot vote in Tim's primary election, which is in the adjacent district.  For my part, I erroneously wrote in my blog a few days ago that Keith Perry was currently my state representative, but I'm in District 20 and it's Clovis, not Keith...

Maybe what I'm trying to get at here is that it isn't very easy for citizen voters to be able to tell which districts they live in, and watching all these television ads can be confusing.  Has it ever happened to you that you thought long and seriously about a race and then went to the polling station only to  discover that it was in another district from where you live?  Well, it's happened to me and I think, in our information age, more serious efforts need to be taken to inform voters which city, state House, state Senate, and U.S. House districts they live in.  All one should need is a search engine on the Internet whereby they enter their address and the information about their particular national, state, and local districts is made instantly available.  Sounds like something that the Supervisor of Elections should be responsible for implementing...