Speaker Series Update May 3, 22

May 3, 2022 – Sandy Parker – With Power Point in hand and loaded with ton information about voting, Sandy came prepared to educate the Rotarians and guests about the power of voting. Sandy started by letting everyone know that as of March 01, 2022, the registered voters in Collier County totaled 244,578. The breakdown of those registered voters is: 3,63,857 are registered without a major party affiliation, 60,169 are No-Party Affiliation, and 3,688 are with a minor political party. The Rotarians quickly figured out that with only 56,255 registered voters the Democrat only account for 23% of the total Collier County voters. On the other hand, with 124,646 registered voters the Republican account for 51% of the total Collier County voters.

After letting this information sink in for a brief moment, Sandy continued the briefing by explaining the impact of the election in the August Primaries. The majority of the Rotarians knew right away the three basic types of elections: the primary, general, and special. However, the hands slowly went down when the question of what the difference in the Open Primary States, the Closed Primary States, and the Presidential Primary?

Sandy explained that Florida is a Closed Primary State and why having over 51% of the registered voters the Republican often determine who will be representing the State in Congress. This year is a Mid-term Election Year which means the control of the Congress hangs in the balance. Secondly, only Democrats and Republicans can vote in either party primary election, voters with No Parth Affiliation (NPA) are not eligible to vote for partisan candidates in a primary election. This got the attention of many when they realized the reason they could not vote for a certain candidate and equally important why no runoff was necessary when 50% of the votes were achieved or in some cases when a candidate got more votes than any of the three or more candidates running for an office.

The presentation was superb, and Sandy understood the Rotarians and guests would have more questions. Thus, she answered as many as time allowed and left everyone with handouts and her site where any and every question would be answered with 24 hours and updates published after every breaking news about voting – “Sandy Parker is founder, publisher and author of SPARKER’s SOAPBOX, (https://www.sparkers-soapbox.com) who’s mission is facilitating and encouraging informed voting and civic participation in Collier County and throughout Florida”.

Sandy Parker

BIO: Her topic will be “Get Ready to Vote in the August Primaries”.

“Sandy Parker is founder, publisher and author of SPARKER’s SOAPBOX, (https://www.sparkers-soapbox.com) who’s mission is facilitating and encouraging informed voting and civic participation in Collier County and throughout Florida”.
Recently, Parker received Great Naples Leadership’s LEADERSHIP AWARD for her long-standing efforts to inform voters, and is active with the
 League of Women Voters of Collier County, the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce and the Press Club of Southwest Florida.
Parker was graduated with highest honors in American Studies from Douglass College of Rutgers University and an MBA from the Wharton School.

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