Chase Lurgio you have destroyed us!

Election Depression: We must get rid of the “write in candidate” option

I am calling for Chase Lurgio and his parents out to explain his actions. You want to run for Commission for “fun” and essentially destroy us we demand to know who asked you to do this and what did you get in return? You like green toxic algae in the water well you got it now!

Current law allows all voters to cast ballots in a primary race when candidates have no opposition outside the party. However, a write-in effectually closes the primary to all voters except those of the same party as the legitimate candidates.

Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch lost  the district one race by 677 votes. A  JBHS school student,Chase Austin Lurgio, closed the race. Because the race was all Republican it would have been run as an open election and everyone could have voted. Jacqui would have won. I have no doubt. I know hundreds of people in Martin County. Not one of them was for Doug Smith.

Chase ran as a “write in” essentially disenfranchising the rest of us. This was not a legitimate Democrat candidate. There is so much more. I’m sure of it.

I know that no respectable Democrat would run because it was imperative that we have Jacqui. We all understood this.

This kid made no effort at all after he registered at the Supervisor of Elections. He just moved here a year ago. On his Facebook page under books he has “none.”  Why DID he run? Is he planning on going to college and would have be gone anyway? He never attended any forums. He did not go  door to door. No fundraising. He did not fill out his biographical information. He signed for free and was never heard of since. He has no intention of doing anything. Why do this? What was in it for him to destroy an entire county.

This situation is fraudulent and it must be remedied now and for the future. This is not a real candidate.

Why was this important? Because Jacqui was  really qualified to speak for us on behalf of our river. She had a successful run at Mayor and Commissioner of Sewalls Point. She writes about the water almost every day and she went back to school and did a fellowship to even further her understanding of the water. She lives and breaths the Indian River Lagoon. She understand fairness. She thinks issues through. This is her home.  She could have actually brought us together.

The rest is personal. I chose to live here because I fell in love with Jensen Beach. It’s vibrant downtown. The old motels. The lagoon was clean when I moved here. There were paddle boards and kayaks everywhere. It was the start of funky cool Jensen Beach with lots of business to go around. The lagoon was our largest employer.

I have boycotted downtown Jensen. It is a  fully own subsidiary of Doug Smith, Ron Rose and his Chamber that refuses to help with the water. In fact,I have never seen an event for the water downtown. Why? Because they deny the fact that the water is dirty. I used to love to go Crawdaddys. I got take out once a week and took my friends there. All my visitors got a evening at Crawdaddys. They kicked a friend of mine out for trying to get a petition signed for water and that was the last time I went there.

Doug Smith did two pieces off the top of my head where he blamed the septic tanks on our issues. One for WPTV and one for PBS. It’s not our septic  tanks.

I have never lived any place where the elected officials had elected officials had such blatant disdain for the citizens and the actual sources of income for our economy. It’s horrible.

The old motels are closed and replaced with sober homes and drug rehabs that are importing drug addicts to my neighborhood. There is constant crime. When I moved here there was low crime. No one seems to care about the water, or the sober homes, or the trains.

The water is disgusting. There is no boating for me. I can’t even have my grandson here for fear he will get sick.

Doug Smith and his cronies sent out some nasty post cards. Those of us that know Jacqui just laughed. But the write in was the killer.

I am disenfranchised. We are disenfranchised. This must be investigated. We must know the truth.

Here is a good article that I found on the subject. It legal but it’s one step away from election fraud. That’s how Florida likes it voters. Disenfranchised.

Here are a few points

“Genuine candidates who intend to hold elected office must qualify to have their names appear on the ballot.  There is a reason for that as well; to prevent those who are not serious about public service from corrupting an otherwise legitimate ballot that will be presented to voters on Election Day.”

Real candidates have to pay a qualifying fee. Write In’s do not.

Their name does not even appear on the ballot. The practice is archaic.

In this article,

Secretive write-in candidates lock out Florida voters

“Write-ins are blocking full voter participation in six Senate districts and 14 House districts on the Aug. 30 primary ballot, disenfranchising 1.6 million voters. Shrinking the voter pool allows candidates to tailor messages to the extremes: the most conservative or most liberal voters in their party. The result could mean more lawmakers at the far ends of the political spectrum.

Election officials are fed up with the practice and the refusal of both parties or the Legislature to fix it.