5 Quick Questions with Arnie Weiss

Why did you decide to run now?

I received a notice from the Department of Elections in late March informing me that I was about to be purged from the voting roles.  After looking into the situation I discovered that there are systemic issues in how the Department contacts voters and very little consistency in how the Department is using methods besides the post office to contact voters.  I also discovered that none of the people running have any experience running any kind of technology focused organizations at a time when we need to be looking at how we can upgrade and improve the backend data systems and election processes.   

Why should voters choose you over the other candidates in the race?

Voters in this county deserve a supervisor who will actually have a plan for improving the department and actually know how to deliver instead of a lifelong Republican who was against electing a supervisor, because as he put it, “Political hacks are just not going to do a good job.” Of course that was when he was a Republican and was criticizing Democrats but now of course he has jumped parties to run for this job which to me is the definition of a political hack.

What will you do as Supervisor of Elections?

We need to make the ballot more accessible to everyone with a legal right to vote while also working to use technology to speed the processing time at polling places and securing the vote by mail process so all of the legal registered voters in the county can feel confident that we run the model for elections not only in the state of Florida but for the nation.  This includes working with the other agencies in the state so we can definitively identify to those who are trying to regain their voting rights what they need to do so we can approve their registration.

What do you say to Independents and how will you improve voter turnout in Miami-Dade for primaries?

We need to get voters to see that tuning out is not a higher level of consciousness but is ultimately the reason why they get stuck with the status quo. 

Being Independent is a cornerstone of what it means to be an American but in the State of Florida you are only giving up your right to help decide who will be on the ballot in November.  The party insiders are perfectly happy to have you give them all the power but the only way you are ever going to get closer to the candidate you want is if you register with a party and vote in their primary.

What is one way we can recruit new poll workers?

We should work with our High Schools to train Seniors and older Juniors with a specific interest in Civics, Government, and IT to work as poll workers on election day.