Weather router Chris Parker reacted to the story that a Florida elections officer will no longer allow cruisers using a popular mail service to register to vote. Parker, who describes himself as a Libertarian, recalled an incident involving St. Brendan’s Isle (before its current ownership) and a previous Clay County supervisor of elections.
When we set sail for five years in the Bahamas and Caribbean in 1999 we also had a skirmish with the elections supervisor in Clay County. We of course used St Brendan’s Isle mail service in Green Cove Springs.
We told the Elections Supervisor we wanted them to give us something in writing telling us we did not have a right to vote, even though our only legal U.S. address was in Green Cove Springs. We previously lived in Pinellas County and the elections supervisor there said that, since we no longer maintained a legal address in Pinellas County, we could not continue voting there.
We told the elections supervisor in Clay County we would use his letter refusing our voter registration to claim exemption from having to pay Florida and federal taxes. We had a war over 200 years ago in part over taxation without representation. We were not felons, but we were being denied our right to vote, and we would therefore refuse to pay taxes.
Our voter registrations were immediately approved.
Parker has been advising cruising boaters for more than 15 years, earning a reputation for precision forecasting, initially in the Bahamas and Caribbean Sea, and now all over the world. In 2010, Parker founded the Marine Weather Center, based in Lakeland, Florida, where he broadcasts to small private vessels all over the world using powerful radio equipment, satellite communications and third-partyy services.
