Surprise! Redistricting and the Dollar Tree.

 Dear you,

The Florida Primary Election was pure confusion. (Can confusion be pure?)  The redistricting throughout the state came as a surprise to many voters who showed up to vote on 8/23, the official election day, only to discover they were in the wrong polling place.  Surprise!  You've been redistricted.  This happened throughout the state, north, south, east and west.  It happened to me.  Story:

I voted in-person early, the week before 8/23.  Early voting can be done anywhere in your county of residence.  I went to the place I always go for early voting, the Walton County Courthouse Annex near the beach on Hwy 331.  When I got the ballot for Democrats, I saw what I expected.  I selected Charlie Crist for Governor, Val Demings for US Senator, and Daniel Uhlfelder for Florida Attorney General.  What I didn't see was a Democrat choice to oppose Matt Gaetz, the current un-fabulous congressman representing District One.  District One was my district.  Where were the Dem challengers?  (Schiller and Jones.  In the end, Jones won and will oppose Matty.)  I asked the polling workers what was up.  Perhaps Schiller was running unopposed since Jones had previously been pulled from the ballot for some technical reason related to party membership tenure.  Was this the case?  I don't see Schiller because she is unopposed and therefore "in"?  The workers were as confused as I was and suggested that was the case.

But it wasn't.  I had no anti-Gaetz Dem choice because I AM NO LONGER IN DISTRICT ONE!  The beaches of South Walton where I live are now absorbed into District Two, ruled by Congressman Neal Dunn.  This is the district that also absorbed the massive blue-voters of Tallahassee/Leon County's District Five, represented by Democrat Al Lawson. That district had, before DeSantis's shifty decree, included the majority black areas between Tallahassee and Jacksonville as well.  It is now submerged in the pasty mass of District Two, which DeSantis made even larger and whiter by shifting citizens from District One to District Two.  Clever. The majority of coastal voters here in South Walton are, as expected, red Republicans.  Their numbers will help dilute any resistance by formerly blue Tally coalitions. Do the math. Alfred Lawson (D) will now oppose Dunn (R) in November in this "new" blobby, white District Two. Uphill battle indeed. 

Wow. Talk about a rigged election.

I have never been confused about my literal place on the election map until now. I don't know why I didn't inform myself about the scope of this redistricting and the fact that it included ME. Perhaps I was too focused on what was happening to Tally itself.  Perhaps I was everywhere but "here" in terms of "yes, it could happen here".  Anyway, I finally caught on a few days after 8/23 when a new Voter Information Card arrived in my mailbox.  There it was, clear as day.  US Congress, District 2.

Thanks a lot, Walton County.  Sending that card out after the primaries was really, really helpful.

Meanwhile, in the mundane daily world of the Panhandle, there are other changes. Surprise!  The Dollar Tree at Pier Park shopping center now offers products for $1.25.  They have not changed their signage yet to indicate they are now The Dollar Twenty-Five Tree. The poor employees now have to deal with irate cheapo customers who had no idea this was happening. They, the employees, were probably the last to know. Surprise! Just like redistricting.

Well, the good news on both fronts is this:  Matt Gaetz is no longer my vile congressperson and the $1.25 items are actually better than the $1 versions; the generic Q-tips are cottony and strong; the matches actually fire up when struck; and the candles don't smell like body odor!

And that is the news from here in the land of the redistricted and confused.

Happy end of August.  

Joyce