In the fall of 1970, Florida voters were presented with an unusual experiment in political television. Politithon ’70 was a groundbreaking, live four-and-a-half-hour public-service broadcast designed to take much of the information voters normally had to piece together themselves and present it in a single, accessible program. Produced by Miami public television station WPBT-TV, the statewide television and radio special aired from the Miami Beach Auditorium on October 28, just days before Floridians headed to the polls.
Hosted by veteran television journalist John Daly, Politithon ’70 brought together candidates for every statewide office and gave viewers an opportunity to hear directly from the people whose names would appear on the November ballot. Rather than presenting politics as a series of campaign commercials and carefully staged appearances, the program attempted to explain the election itself. The duties and responsibilities of the various offices were outlined for viewers before candidates were given opportunities to make statements and respond to questions submitted by voters.
The marathon broadcast went beyond the candidates as well. Florida voters were being asked to consider seven proposed amendments to the state constitution, and Politithon ’70 devoted part of its airtime to explaining those measures. The result was something resembling a televised voter guide, combining elements of a political forum, election handbook, and call-in public-affairs program into one ambitious live production.
Its creators described the concept as an effort to essentially “bring the ballot to life.” That mission was particularly significant in 1970, when television had already transformed American campaigning. Candidates increasingly depended upon expensive advertising and short television appearances to reach large numbers of voters, creating concerns that political television favored those with the money to purchase airtime. Public broadcasting offered a different approach: providing candidates access to the airwaves while giving voters information intended to help them better understand the choices appearing on their ballots.
Pulling off such a program was itself an impressive undertaking. For four and a half hours, Politithon ’70 attempted to cover an enormous amount of political territory while maintaining the immediacy of a live broadcast. Its combination of candidate appearances, voter questions, explanations, and election information was remarkably ambitious for local public television of the era.
The experiment attracted considerable attention and praise, earning awards and recognition for its approach to election coverage. More importantly, Politithon ’70 demonstrated what public television could contribute to the democratic process beyond conventional news reports and campaign advertising. Long before 24-hour cable news, televised town halls and online voter guides became commonplace, WPBT had experimented with an extraordinarily simple idea: put the ballot on television, explain what everything meant, introduce the people running for office, and give voters several uninterrupted hours to hear what they had to say.
