Florida the rules are different here Chapter CLX

Today elections are being held in the city of Boynton Beach. According to the Sun-Sentinel, Precinct 7122, has one registered voter. That one registered voter is supposedly living in Nevada now. Such efficient election systems we have here in the Sunshine State. Isn't this a great state or what?

Linked to- Bullwinkle, Perri Nelson, Right Wing Nation, The World According to Carl,

Boynton Beach - The effect of Precinct 7122 on the outcome of the city's District 2 race will likely be zilch during Tuesday's elections.

That's because the precinct, a thin, 2-mile sliver along Federal Highway, has just one registered voter. And, in fact, that voter no longer lives in Florida, according to relatives in Nevada. The voter's mailing address is in Kentucky.

In Palm Beach County, where there are 788,712 registered voters, such seemingly bizarre precincts aren't so rare. Of the county's 780 precincts, 61 of them had fewer than 25 registered voters. And records show there were 15 precincts countywide with just one registered voter, just like in Precinct 7122.

Boynton Beach has two other precincts without enough voters to fill a bus. One has 19. One has only six.

The Supervisor of Elections Office is responsible for carving out precincts and recommends changes to the Board of County Commissioners, who ultimately have the final say.

The overlap of districts for U.S. Congress, state House and Senate, County Commission, School Board and municipal offices must all be taken into consideration when drawing each precinct's boundaries, said Charmaine Kelley, deputy chief of the Supervisor of Elections Office. Each precinct can have only one of each, plus any at-large municipal offices.

"It's layer upon layer upon layer," she said. "7122 exists because it could not be absorbed into any of the surrounding precincts. It doesn't match anything."

Kelley said the county reviews its precincts when the state evaluates its Senate and House districts every ten years in a process called reapportionment. The state is due for reapportionment in 2012.

Florida Senate spokeswoman Kathy Mears said the state's "reapportionment expert said he's not heard of a precinct with one voter."

She recited Chapter 101 of the state statutes, which recommends that in any election with "fewer than 25 registered electors of the only political party having candidates on the ballot at any precinct, such precinct may be combined with other adjoining precincts."