by Cory Wright
If you are a Manatee County resident, please plan to vote in the August 20 closed primary local election.
I get it; ignorance is bliss! But, when that ignorance starts affecting you personally, when you waste hours at a time in stand-still traffic due to rampant overdevelopment & poor infrastructure, when irresponsible slash & burn development practices create toxic dust storms and ash in the air you breathe, when the water you drink starts to taste & smell like dirt, when your kids can’t play in the water because of out of control algae blooms & bacterial contaminations, when the people in power who you assumed had your best interests at heart blatantly ignore, belittle & demean their constituents & against all logic vote to destroy our county’s immeasurably valuable wetland buffers, when your insurance premiums rise due in part to those wetland buffers no longer being in place, when Manatee County Commissioners claim to be “against big government,” but then try to bully and bulldoze over the island’s Home Rule, when they take away the public’s ability to make call-in comments during meetings and send out intentional disinformation campaigns in the form of letters, texts, and robocalls to try and fool unsuspecting voters into thinking that the highly respected & reputable charitable organization, Tunnel To Towers (which provides housing & services to Veterans) is not to be trusted- all because their developer sugar daddies didn’t want affordable housing for Veterans near “their territory,” and when they seek to do away entirely with Vote by Mail and Early Voting options in order to make it harder & more inconvenient for people to cast their votes, well, then that ignorance is no longer quite so blissful.
These issues affect all of us who live here, regardless of any political party affiliation, and I sincerely believe that we all care about having a clean, safe, healthy environment, as well as leaders who we can trust are looking out for us, instead of just looking out for themselves & the wealthy, well-connected multimillionaire developers they serve.
Several developer-owned people running next month are counting on YOU to be uninformed, easily manipulated, disengaged, and disenfranchised so that they can continue to destroy this area we call home while claiming to be “true conservatives.”
August 20 is our chance to restore integrity & and sense of sanity to our local government, but due to our state being a “closed primary” state, you will only be allowed to vote IF you go online & register (temporarily) as a Republican. As long as you have a driver’s license, this is easy to do and can be reversed to D (Democrat) or NPA (Non-Party Affiliate/ Independent) anytime after August 20.
The deadline to do so is fast approaching, July 22, so please do not wait! Go to
http://www.registertovoteflorida.gov to check your registration status and to (temporarily, if need be) switch your party affiliation to "Republican" so that you are not left out of this incredibly important closed primary local election.
It is our job as citizens to hold our elected officials accountable and VOTING is how we do it.
Sincerely,
Cory Wright
Bradenton Beach
