By Karen R. Branch-Brioso
The Tampa Tribune

3:25 p.m., Wimauma

The rain is starting to come down in Wimauma, but the voters keep coming, anyway.

Maybe it’s because the poll workers are planting kisses on voters’ lips today.

O.K., well, maybe it’s just one poll worker who’s bussing the voters. And, perhaps, we saw Elida Sarmiento plant just one kiss on a voter who happened to be her daughter, Julia Feliz. Still, you gotta feel the love at Wimauma’s only polling place.

“She’s my baby,” said Sarmiento, 57, with a giggle.

Mom clearly has had a big impact on her 25-year-old daughter. Since before Feliz was born, Sarmiento has served as a poll worker on Election Days here. Feliz shows up at the polls with an in-depth knowledge of the ballot. After voting and getting her goodbye kiss, Feliz says she comes to the polls “just to have the younger vote count – my generation, anyway.”

She’s particular upset this time about Amendment 3, which would require a super-majority of voters to pass future constitutional amendments. She voted no because she feels that would make it easier “for lobbyists to sway the votes.”

Mom’s proud of Feliz. Her daughter gets to pass on her own civic lessons every day as a teacher to ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders at Lennard High School in Ruskin.

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