LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 At first glance, it looked like a normal delivery. The unmarked box truck pulled into the parking lot, carefully backing up to the front doors. Men in blue t-shirts quietly got out of the cab, opening up the back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when the special cargo was revealed. First, the voting booth. Then, the tabulator. Finally, the ballot box. Workers rolled them into the back of the downtown Fort Myers library on Friday, an unceremonious sign that election season has arrived.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lee, Charlotte, and Hendry County start early voting on Monday, after months of preparation by elections officials. That includes educating voters about re-districting, after state lawmakers shuffled thousands of Southwest Florida voters into new congressional districts.<\/p>\n
More than 173,000 voters were impacted by re-districting in Collier County, according to Supervisor of Elections Melissa Blazier. That\u2019s led to some confusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some voters call, especially when they received their sample ballot or vote-by-mail ballot, and asked, \u2018Hey, why isn\u2019t this particular congressional race on my ballot,\u201d said Jenna Persons-Mulicka, the Lee County Supervisor of Elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Persons-Mulicka that helped draw the new map. She for six years in the Florida House, first winning election in 2020. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her as Lee County Supervisor of Elections after She is running against this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Persons-Mulicka said she hopes to get around 60% turnout during the general election. The elections office introduced a \u2018kids ballot\u2019 to encourage more families to vote. Children can choose characters like Captain America and Iron Man for ‘U.S. Senator’ – or alligators and flamingos for ‘favorite Florida wildlife.’ The kids ballots are only available during early voting. The elections office will announce the results after the general election.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We want voting to be a fun experience for the entire family,\u201d Persons-Mulicka said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Early voting runs through Oct. 31. You must show a valid form of identification at polling places. That includes a drivers license, passport, or a concealed carry permit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are early voting times and locations across Southwest Florida:<\/p>\n
Lee County<\/p>\n
Early voting in Lee County runs from Monday, Oct. 19, through Saturday, Oct. 31.<\/p>\n
Voting is 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily<\/p>\n
for a list of locations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Collier County<\/p>\n
Early voting in Collier County runs from Oct. 22 through Oct. 31<\/p>\n
Voting is 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily<\/p>\n
for a list of locations.<\/p>\n
Charlotte County<\/p>\n
Early voting in Charlotte County runs from Oct. 19 through Oct. 31<\/p>\n
Voting is 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
for a list of locations.<\/p>\n
Hendry County<\/p>\n
Early voting in Hendry County runs from Oct. 19 through Oct. 31<\/p>\n
Voting is 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
for a list of locations.<\/p>\n
DeSoto County<\/p>\n
Early voting in DeSoto County runs from Oct. 22 through Oct. 31<\/p>\n
Voting is 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
for a list of locations<\/p>\n
Glades County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Early voting in Glades County runs from Oct. 24 through Oct. 31<\/p>\n
Voting is 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
for a list of locations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 At first glance, it looked like a normal delivery. The unmarked box truck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,652,4250,853,169699,5926,95013,165542,7084,14496,2715,28,9129,169698,897,169697,34220,157982,11000,6281,29452,140269,169696,325,356,159775,169695,169694,412,40610,807,1521,34219,33167,4571,4220],"class_list":["post-433034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-captain","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-county","tag-chris-vignieri","tag-collier-county","tag-congressional-race","tag-county-supervisor","tag-desoto-county","tag-early-voting","tag-elections","tag-florida","tag-florida-house","tag-florida-house-committee","tag-fort-myers","tag-fort-myers-library","tag-general-election","tag-geography-of-florida","tag-glades-county","tag-governor","tag-hendry-county","tag-iron-man","tag-jenna","tag-lee","tag-lee-county","tag-lee-county-supervisor","tag-melissa-blazier","tag-mulicka","tag-ron-desantis","tag-senator","tag-south-florida","tag-southwest-florida","tag-supervisor","tag-tommy-doyle","tag-united-states","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}