‘Voting should be a convenience’: Concerns of lack of early voting sites in South St. Pete grow

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — It’s election season, and there’s concern from some voters in South St. Petersburg over a lack of early voting sites.

There are seven locations throughout Pinellas County, but some said they aren’t accessible to everyone.

In 18 days, early voting will begin in Pinellas County. Darlene Hill said her first time voting early was at age 18.

“I started work in 1977 at New Hope Daycare,” Hill said, and she’s been voting early ever since.

She grew up in South St. Petersburg and said she votes early for convenience. Though she hasn’t always been this close to her early voting site.

“I’d like to see early voting everywhere in the mile range that everybody can walk, catch the bus like I do. Be independent,” Hill said.

Dereck Cooper is the political action chair for the St. Petersburg NAACP. He said he often hears concerns from people in South St. Pete who don’t have transportation to get to voting sites. But they aren’t waiting around to see what happens.

“Voting should be a convenience,” Cooper said. “We’re going to start a rideshare program, you know, of course, free of charge. And we will set up zones in the city to where people can go and get a ride to their polling place because of lack of early voting.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center got involved this week. They sent a letter to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections office to add an early voting site in South St. Pete, add a ballot box, and coordinate with the county transit authority to give free rides to early voting sites.

“By not placing a polling precinct in an early voting site, or a drop box and/or a drop box in South Saint Pete, that shows that there is potentially an intent to discriminate against those residents,” Arthur Ago of the SPLC said. “That violates not only Florida law, but also the federal Voting Rights Act, as well as the 14th and 15th amendments to the United States Constitution.”

The Supervisor of Elections Office sent the following statement:

“Early voting locations are selected years in advance as part of a countywide plan designed to provide geographic access to voters throughout Pinellas County. Currently, all Pinellas voters are within five miles of an early voting site. Voters have three ways to cast a ballot. Every registered voter has the option to request a mail ballot at VotePinellas.gov; and on Election Day, 157 polling places will be open throughout the county. Voters can choose the voting option that best meets their needs.”

“The County has designated seven early voting sites in majority-white areas; however, it has
resisted designating an early voting site in South St. Petersburg, the area of the County with the highest concentration of Black voters,” SPLC Senior Staff Attorney Matletha Bennette said.

Hill said it can’t hurt to add more sites to the south side.

“Sometimes that hinders some people from voting. If they don’t have somewhere close, they can’t get nobody or a family member to take them,” Hill said. “If we have somewhere closer, it’d be much better to vote early.”

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