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Carlton: Sure, don't vote. Let someone else pick who runs your city.

 
Vote, get your cool sticker and, oh yeah, have some say in the world.  [Times (2012)]
Vote, get your cool sticker and, oh yeah, have some say in the world. [Times (2012)]
Published March 2, 2019

A truth for us city-dwellers: In some ways, the person we elect mayor will have more influence on our workaday lives than the governor of Florida or the president of the United States.

Your mayor has a hand in everything from city parks to street flooding to reasonable taxes. Your mayor sets the tone for life in your town. So who sits in that seat matters.

And yet.

With term limits about to end the tenure of Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, citizens are poised to pick who runs this place for the next four years. (Voters also get to determine the make-up of their next city council in races that include both incumbents and fresh faces.) Early voting is well underway and continues through Sunday. Tuesday is election day.

And even with about 237,000 people registered to vote in Tampa, it is possible that not even a quarter of us will bother.

Look at our history: About 13 percent of voters showed up to have a say in the 2015 city election. This meant "13 percent of the voters made the decision for the other 87 percent," says Hillsborough Elections Supervisor Craig Latimer, a man working to get us to vote any way he can: early, by mail, or on election day.

Which, if I didn't mention it, is Tuesday.

Back in 2011, when Buckhorn beat some heavy-hitters that included a four-time Tampa mayor, voter turnout was 22 percent. And it's worth noting that Buckhorn, who would steer the city for the next eight years, got into the runoff he would ultimately win by less than 400 votes.

Low turnout "puts the future of our community in the hands of a small number of people," says the very reluctantly leaving Buckhorn.

So why do we vote in March instead of November?

Because our cities get to decide when they hold their elections. Sure, turnout would be better if Tampa held it during the November general election. But then there's the argument that on a lengthy ballot — and that last one was more scroll than ballot — city races could get lost.

But given all those convenient options, why aren't we voting?

I usually wait for election day, but this week I headed to Cyrus Greene Community Center in East Tampa to check out the alleged ease of early voting. Dozens of people ringed the place with campaign signs for various candidates. In a matter of minutes I was out the door with my "I Voted" sticker firmly affixed. They gave me a spare to wear election day.

Other voters were scarce. Just when it seemed like tumbleweeds might start blowing across the parking lot, I met 20-year-old Nicole Williams, on her way to work, tight on time and stopping to vote anyway.

Why? Which was not such a dumb question when you consider most of us who can won't anyway.

"It affects us. It's our city," she says.

She remembers putting out political yard sides with her dad as a kid. She registered at 18 in time to vote in her first presidential election. She tells her friends they need to get registered, that it matters.

"I vote in every election I can," she says. "I feel like it's something I've got to do."

I did not hug her, but not because I didn't want to.

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For more information on early voting through Sunday and voting on election day Tuesday, go to votehillsborough.org.

Contact Sue Carlton at scarlton@tampabay.com.