About a dozen people attended Doug Underhill’s protest to get Bruce Childers on the August primary ballot. At 9 a.m., there were more signs than people standing on Palafox Street, but more began to drift in.
Cris Dosev was among the protesters. During my 15 minutes at the rally, Underhill didn’t give a speech. However, Dosev shared his thoughts with me that Supervisor of Elections Robert Bender’s decision has disenfranchised the electorate.
“Last I checked, the only people going to be disenfranchised in this community or the state of Florida are felons,” Dosev said. “Do we fall into that basket now? Are we all felons? Just give us a choice.”
He expressed concerns that the Childers case will not be decided before the primary ballot is finalized. “The timing is pretty critical here. Supercritical, right? This can easily be gamed out and played out. And isn’t this what they’re trying to do nationally with Donald Trump? Keep him off ballots. I can’t imagine seeing that here in Escambia County, given the first congressional district.”
Dosev joked that this type of politics was covered in my book “City of Grudges.”
“Grudges, this is part and parcel to this community, but, in the big scheme of things, isn’t that what politics is all about, some form of a grudge? The right doesn’t like the left. The left doesn’t like the right.”
He continued, “I mean, it’s not because they’re getting along unless, of course, there’s a possibility of making money, and there’s a way, and there’s one issue that they are both making money on, and that’s immigration. Right? Because that can be solved, saw, but there’s no reason to solve it. You solve it, and then they wouldn’t have money coming in.”
Dosev mentioned a petition drive to get Gov. Ron DeSantis to intervene. “I would hope that it’s brought to his attention that he would.”
He said his experiences with the Supervisor of Elections office were different when he ran for Congress and the Florida House.
“Never ever once did we ever come into any kind of conflict with David Stafford (Bender’s predecessor), staff and office, always incredibly accommodating,” Dosev said, “‘Chris, you got to have this, or you got to make sure you get this in.’ Okay. Never once did I leave that office thinking to myself, did I forget something? Have I fallen? No. ‘Oh, Cris, make sure you get this down to Tallahassee.’ Whatever we needed to do, his office professionally made sure we were accommodated. And that’s a big deal.”
“If they can’t effectively submit an application, what chances do you have of submitting one?” he asked. “What chances do I have of submitting one if you don’t have an office that’s willing to work with you and assist you in doing it? Their obligation is to allow you to vote and have an opportunity to have a selection. That’s their primary obligation. They failed to do that.”
Dosev added, “They failed. They may as well shut up shop and just say, ‘Hey Rick, you’re the governor now.’ And that’s what’s happened. And so there really isn’t two sides to the story of someone’s obligation. They took an oath to protect your right and my right to vote.”
