Joyce Griffin has been involved with Florida Keys elections since Ronald Reagan was reelected in 1984, with the first George Bush as his vice president. It was the year of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A” and “The Karate Kid.”
That was 40 years ago, for any of you fellow English majors who struggle with subtraction. Forty years.
From Reagan to Bush (the first one), then Clinton, back to Bush (the second one), from Obama to Trump, now Biden to, well…
Griffin knows elections — campaign rules for candidates, financial disclosures, voter registration, precincts and poll workers, vote-by-mail, mandatory recounts for close races, qualifying periods, canvassing boards and more. And she’s happy to share that knowledge and those details, having worked hard to make much of the information available to the public on her website at keyselections.org, a priceless resource for candidates, voters, campaign managers and yes, local news reporters.
More important than knowing election laws, Griffin respects them, because she loves the entire democratic process, its history and its future.
“I love my job,” she said. “I come from a long line of patriots who have loved this country. I was asked one time what makes my job so special, and I said, ‘Soldiers have died and are still dying for our democracy. I’m the seed of that democracy, where it all begins with our elections, and I hope I’ve made those soldiers proud, because real heroes don’t wear capes; they wear dog tags.’”
A bedazzled cowboy hat lives in Griffin’s office, a tribute to her father’s Texas roots.
Carl Griffin was a Coast Guardsman who met Joyce’s mother, a Conch, when he was stationed in Key West.
“I didn’t grow up rich, far from it,” Griffin said, smiling at the memory of the silverware in the family’s kitchen drawer.
“I remember doing the dishes one night after dinner. I asked my mom where my dad — Carl Griffin — had gotten our monogrammed silverware, and she just giggled.
“I don’t know how long it took me to realize that the C.G. on all our forks and spoons meant Coast Guard and not Carl Griffin,” she said laughing.
Born and raised in Key West, Griffin has watched the county and its electorate evolve over the decades, with changes in technology, ideology and demographics. Once a reliably blue, or Democratic leaning, county, the island chain is now an arcing line of red Republicanism swinging off the tip of mainland Florida, punctuated at the very end by the still-blue Key West.
But for Griffin, one thing has never changed.
“I don’t do anyone any favors. Ever,” she said recently from the Lower Keys’ new Supervisor of Elections office on College Road. “I don’t care if it’s a friend you’ve known since kindergarten and they want to vote without an ID. Nope. Sorry, bubba. I’d be breaking the law.”
The same holds true for candidates who come to depend on Griffin’s office for deadlines, timelines, rules and reminders. A candidate may be the most likable, qualified and committed for an office, but that doesn’t mean Griffin will overlook a noon deadline to file some piece of paperwork when the candidate comes running in, breathlessly, at 12:20 p.m.
“Once you do one favor, you’ve broken the law, and where does it end?” Griffin asked rhetorically, leaning back in her chair while wearing a supervisor of elections golf shirt embroidered with the nickname her longtime staff gave her — Mama Bear.
“My staff is amazing, and I stand on their shoulders,” she said, giving them as much credit as she gets for conducting fair, lawful, impartial and legitimate elections in Monroe County for decades.
“Joyce don’t play,” she recalled one candidate telling another in the elections office one day. Two of her staff members have worked with Griffin for more than 30 years. Another has been with her for more than 20.
But things are about to change in the elections offices countywide, because Griffin is hanging up her cowboy hat, having decided not to seek reelection this year and to enjoy her retirement.
Keys voters elected a new supervisor of elections this week, and Griffin will pass the reins to Ron Saunders or Sherri Hodies.
“I want someone in here who can walk down the middle of the road, who is strong, who can say no when they need to, and most importantly, someone who can follow the law and fight for my voters — all 51,081 of my voters, regardless of party or politics. That’s what I want.”
Whoever that successor is has big shoes to fill. And we at the Keys Weekly tip our hats to Joyce Griffin, in gratitude, respect and admiration for a job well done.
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