The Clay County REC presidential absentee request ballot request palm card just got a new makeover. Before it was plain with no pictures and verbiage asking residents to vote. The new flyer is modernized and more eye appealing. It has a picture of the REC’s chairwoman, Leslie Dougher along with a quote from her, vibrant patriotic colors and designs.

Voters brought this palm card to my attention for many reasons. They are as follows: there was no paid for verbiage on it, Leslie Dougher is currently running for state representative and they thought it was a conflict of interest she was on the flyer, they thought she was using the flyer which was paid for by the REC as free advertisement for her campaign by letting people know she is the chairwoman and having her picture on it which would help with face and name recognition and it is presumed REC money is being used to distribute the flyers.

Are their accusations legitimate? I don’t have a definitive answer for that but the following is what I found out after investigating the matter.

Here are my questions and her answers below:

SHARK TANK: The absentee ballot request prior to this year was generic with no pictures. Did you add your picture and a comment on it as a way to gain leverage for the upcoming state representative election you are running for?

DOUGHER: First of all I’m not on the Presidential ballot in March so I’m not sure the relevance of these questions. We are making a concerted effort to personalize the political process by putting a face and name to the local party.
As the Chairman of the Republican Party of Clay County, my job is to educate the Republican electorate and register voters. After a thorough analysis of the voting history of our Republican Clay County voters, we observed that 98% of the Republican voters who voted in the 2012 Republican Presidential Preference Primary also voted in the 2012 General Election.
To increase Republican turnout in the 2016 General Election where Florida will play a major role in electing a Republican to the Presidency, my committee was presented a plan at our September 2015 REC meeting to canvass infrequent Republican voters – those who had voted in 1 or 2 out of the last 4 main elections – with the absentee ballot request palm card to encourage them to turn out to vote in the upcoming Presidential Preference Primary on March 15th. We chose to encourage these infrequent Republican voters to vote via absentee ballot because the state releases a daily update of those voters who have received and returned (or not returned) their ballots as the election approaches giving our committee an opportunity to follow-up with them to return their absentee ballot, thus increasing Republican turnout in the 2016 PPP and in the 2016 General Election.
At our October 2015 REC meeting, 9 members stepped forward to engage in our plan and were given the palm cards to distribute. These 9 members lived in the following Clay Co. precincts: 113 (2), 115, 128 (2), 206, 410 (2), and 412. When looking at a Clay County precinct map, you will notice that these 9 precincts are located in the northern half of Clay County (House District 18) and would not be engaging any potential House District 19 voters.
If an REC member from a precinct in House District 19 stepped forward to participate in our plan, we would have used the same materials because the materials do not mention myself as a candidate for state representative. The palm card clearly states that I am the Chairman of the Clay County Republican Party and I will represent all of Clay County to increase Republican turnout.
To be clear, the absentee ballot request portion of our palm card was perforated so the potential Republican voter could return the absentee request form to the Supervisor of Elections with a stamp and keep the 2016 PPP reminder.
In reference to ‘the absentee ballot request prior to this year was generic with no pictures’ – I believe you are referring to our absentee ballot request form we had at the fair in 2014. Those were printed in bulk as a 1-color job to save on cost and were not intended to be door-knocking pieces. They were intended for mass distribution at the fair. The intent and voter targets are mutually exclusive.

SHARK TANK: Was REC money used to produce and/or distribute the new absentee ballot requests?

DOUGHER: The Clay REC produced the palm cards that also included an absentee ballot request form. To comply with state statutes, REC money had to be used to produce these palm cards.

SHARK TANK: Did you get permission from the Florida Division of Elections before adding your photo and comment on the ballot request?

DOUGHER: According to Florida state statute, any voter can request an absentee ballot in writing.
If the individual is making the request, the following information is required:
– The name of the voter for whom the ballot is being requested; – The voter’s address – The voter’s date of birth; and – The voter’s signature (if the request is written)
If an immediate family member or legal guardian is requesting an absentee ballot, the following additional information must be provided:
– The requestor’s address; – The requestor’s driver’s license number (if available); – The requestor’s relationship to the voter; and – The requestor’s signature (if the request is written).
http://dos.myflorida.com/elections/for-voters/voting/absentee-voting/
All of these criteria were met in our perforated absentee ballot request form. The photo and comment are not part of the absentee ballot request form.
To be clear, a voter could request an absentee ballot on a sheet of paper as long as the information above is provided. As a committee, we wanted to make that process as smooth as possible by providing them with a pre-filled card to request their absentee ballot.

SHARK TANK: Why is there not a paid for disclaimer on it?

DOUGHER: The initial cards we passed out did not have a disclaimer on them, which was a simple oversight by our committee. We immediately rectified that oversight by adding the disclaimer on to each palm card (see picture). You have received one of the initial cards passed out in order to try and create an issue for my state representative campaign.

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Here are photos of the old and new palm cards. The old flyer is on the left and the new flyer is on the right.

Here is a picture of the updated palm card Leslie Dougher provided me which shows the disclaimer has since been added:

I took this matter a step further and I asked a representative at the Florida Department of State if a sitting chairwoman who was also running for state representative could put her picture and add a quote from herself to an official REC palm card during her election. The representative’s answer was very ambiguous and did not address my inquiry directly but it seemed to allude she was within her rights to circulate the palm card. This is what they said:

There does not appear to be a provision in Chapter 106 of the Florida Statutes that applies to the item you referenced.

I asked them to clarify their position and they have yet to do so.