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Expansion of Early Vote Sites and Hours in Florida

Newsletter Volume 4 Issue 3

November 30, 2009

FLORIDA – Advancement Project has been advocating with Florida state legislators to introduce a bill that would expand the hours for early voting statewide and the options for creating early voting sites.

Under current Florida law, early voting sites have been limited to public libraries, city halls and supervisors offices. Advancement Project has advocated for reform of Florida’s early voting law to:

  • Allow early voting sites to be established at a variety of locations, including malls, colleges, fairgrounds and other government offices;
  • Expand early voting hours to 12 hours on weekdays and a total of 12 hours on weekends;
  • Require uniformity in the number of early voting sites in each county, based on the number of sites in the 2008 general election or a formula based on the number of registered voters in the county, whichever results in the larger number of sites.

Early voting is a critical issue for voters of color in Florida, said Carolyn Thompson, the Florida Voter Protection Advocate for Advancement Project. In the 2008 general election, thousands of voters, particularly in South Florida, stood in line for several hours to vote early. For Advancement Project, the expansion of early-voting issue was among a number of legislative reforms the organization urged in Florida following the 2008 election.

Advancement Project’s research revealed significant disparities in access to early voting in Florida in 2008 with some communities establishing significantly more early voting sites than others, resulting in a far higher proportion of early votes being cast in some communities. In some parts of South Florida, voters waited as long as eight hours to cast ballots early.

While Hillsborough County had 13 sites for some 701,000 registered voters, Pinellas County, which had about 543,000 registered voters, established only three early voting sites. “Pinellas County was among the lowest in voter turnout during early voting in the state of Florida,” said Thompson.

Advancement Project decided to focus on early voting among an array of concerns, said Thompson, because it is the one election reform issue that is most likely to draw bipartisan support in the Florida legislature.

Problems voting early in Florida generated significant media attention in the run-up to the 2008 election, causing Gov. Charlie Crist to identify the early voting problem as a state of emergency, leading him to issue an executive order extending early voting hours.

Advancement Project’s proposed early-voting bill would give supervisors far more flexibility to determine suitable early-vote sites, as long as registered voters have reasonably equal access to voting, said Thompson.

The expansion of early voting is an issue that should draw support from both sides of the aisle, said Thompson. Further, advocating for early voting will also serve as an important organizing tool. “There’s a grassroots component, galvanizing and energizing groups that will come out of this,” Thompson said, adding that she expects African-American churches to be instrumental in applying pressure for expansion of early voting.”

“We are hopeful that early voting reform will be enacted and in effect by the August 2010 primary election,” said Thompson. “But by the time we get to the top of the hill, everyone will know about it,” she said.