Events Calendar
BEAT THE HEAT
Thursday, July 8, Monticello Opera House
6 PM
This "Beat the Heat" gathering is our annual effort to fund our scholarship program. Recommended donation for this event is $5. Additional amounts will be gratefully accepted. College and Vocational Education are expensive, every dollar given goes to kids of our county.
Join us for an enlightening presentation on voting and voting restrictions by Ion Sancho, immediate past Supervisor of Elections for Leon County.
As you may know Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 90 on May 6, introducing significant restrictions on the voting rights of Floridians. This bill was written after a successful election season in Florida, conducted by our Supervisors of Elections, and was "crafted" without consulting their association, and passed by the Republican dominated Legislature over the objections of the Florida Association of Supervisors of Election.
Lawsuits have been filed against the new law by the Florida League of Women Voters and others.
Ion V. Sancho served 28 years as the Supervisor of Elections for Leon County Florida. Recognized for his expertise in voter education and voting technologies, he’s testified before both chambers of Congress, and before other federal and state panels. An innovator, in 1994 Supervisor Sancho introduced early voting to Florida, as well as pioneering the first
integrated windows voter registration database in Florida.
Mr. Sancho was appointed the technical advisor to the 2000 Florida recount by the Florida Supreme Court.
Conducting independent tests in 2005 he uncovered a major security flaw in the Diebold Accuvote 2000 voting machine, (captured in the 2007 Emmy nominated documentary “Hacking
Democracy”) leading to its decertification in several states.
The Election Center awarded the
Freedom Award to his office in 2008 for creating an intelligent bar code tracking system for mail ballots. Retiring in 2016, Mr. Sancho is in the HBO 2020 documentary on voting machine security “Killchain: The Cyber War on American Elections. He serves on the Board for
the non-partisan Electronic Verification Network.
This "Beat the Heat" event will also include the award of scholarships to five Jefferson County graduating high school seniors by the Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee.
Due to the continuing impacts of the Covid-19 virus, no meal will be served, allowing guests, especially those not fully vaccinated, to wear protective masks. Note: it's not too late to get that second vaccination, or even the first, before July 8. Consult the Jefferson County Health Dept., 850-342-0170.
Instead of a meal, door prizes will be awarded, including a total of four $25 meal vouchers for Monticello restaurants, The Porch, Rock Bottom, and Tupelos, and two $25 gift cards.
Tuesday, July 13, 6 PM: DEC meeting in the Community Room of the Jefferson County R.J. Bailar Public Library, 375 S. Water St., Monticello. Open to all registered Democrats. Motions, seconds and votes open to DEC members only.
Any Day, Sunday through Saturday, Donate to support the Scholarship Program of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, for Jefferson County students.