by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Two full days of early voting were lost Wednesday and Thursday and very limited early voting took place Friday as a result of Tropical Storm Fay’s heavy wind and rains. And, while the inclement weather may have cut into campaigning, today’s election will proceed as planned with every precinct in Duval County open.
“We have gone and physically checked every one of them. We thought we might have to move one that was at a community center,” said Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland. “We will have all 284 precincts open in the morning.”
Tropical storm force winds started showing up Wednesday and the at times torrential rains began shortly thereafter. Once the City activated the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department’s Emergency Operations Center, decisions were made quickly. Schools were closed Wednesday and Thursday (eventually Friday, as well) and all City offices were closed for the rest of the week.
Those closures also meant no early voting. According to Holland, early voting is a convenience provided by the local elections offices on a county-by-county basis. It’s not legally required, but the shortened early voting will affect voter turnout.
“Right now, after early voting, it’s at about 6 percent and that’s low,” said Holland, adding only about one-half of the absentee ballots have been returned that were requested. Overall, he’s not expecting the nearly 30 percent turnout he predicted. Instead, Holland is expecting between 20 percent and 24 percent. “That’s not as great as we thought it would be.”
Given the slow movement of the storm, the amount of wind and rain it brought and the number of counties it affected, Holland said there was talk of moving the election.
“That was considered and it was going around the state, but it was never really an option,” he said, explaining there was a conference call with all 67 counties in Florida as well as the Secretary of State. “We decided there was no reason to not have the election. If the storm had wiped out an entire area, then a decision would have been made. We may have gone to voting centers or regional voting.
“The primary is more flexible than the general election.”
Holland said the primary has already been moved once. Traditionally, it’s the first Tuesday in September. However, this year that day falls the day after Labor Day. During the spring legislative session, lawmakers — fearing a low turnout due to people away for the holiday — proposed and passed legislation that moved the election to today.
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