In an area battered by storms, how are Sarasota County election officials responding?
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: October 23, 2024
Host: Hurricane Milton wreaked havoc on buildings and displaced many voters, a little less than a month before the Nov. 5 elections. Ramon Lopez has a look at how political parties in Sarasota and the Supervisor of Elections are responding.
Ramon Lopez: Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner says hurricanes Helene and Milton have caused eight county polling place precincts to move to new locations for the November 5th election. We hear from Ron Turner.
Ron Turner: The election is less than three weeks away. As we’ve seen, life’s unpredictable, you can have some curveballs; we’ve seen that recently. We’ve had eight precincts in our county that have been affected in one way or another that need to change locations.
RL: And Turner said there’s a possibility that other precincts may also shift as damage assessments continue.
RT: We’re still in recovery mode. So in addition to the changes I just mentioned to all of you, we have about a dozen facilities that still do not have power. So there could be further changes in these locations.
RL: Measures are in place to ease voting by county residents since Turner anticipates a traditional 80% voter turnout of the county’s 330,000 registered voters in the upcoming local and critical presidential election — this, despite the level of destruction and disruption caused by the twin deadly storms.
RT: I believe in the voters of Sarasota County. I know that we have engaged citizens here that care about the process and they’re not going to let anything stop them from getting out and casting their ballots in this. And I’m trying, along with my team, but as their supervisor of elections to make sure that I can help them accomplish that.
RL: Ballots will still be cast at the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium, but in the back, since a FEMA disaster recovery center is currently operating in front. And Precincts 211 and 213, which usually is set up at St. Armands Key Lutheran Church, will operate at the Bayfront Community Center this time around. For more details on the relocated election day precincts, go to SarasotaVotes.gov.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says he’s doing his part.
Ron DeSantis: We’re also pleased to announce today that — just as we did following Hurricane Helene, where we signed an executive order to make sure that people would be able to vote in the upcoming November election — we are doing a similar executive order that expands the counties to include the counties that were hardest hit by Hurricane Milton. And so we are adding Collier, Blades, Highlands, Indian River, Manatee, Orange, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota and St. Lucie counties, allowing supervisors of elections to make modest, but reasonable accommodations if they have had damage to any of their voting sites because of the storm, and to be able to ensure that folks have an ability in a place to be able to cast their ballot.
RL: WSLR News spoke to Dan Kuether, chairman of the Sarasota County Democratic Party, who is working to get out the vote. But he has some concerns.
Dan Kuether: Still continuing to make sure people realize that they should be understanding that their vote by mail ballots are coming in the mail, that they need to return this as quickly as possible. And we’re trying to provide information on early voting sites and location changes as much as possible. As of now, we haven’t received any notice that anything has changed, but we’ll be making sure we update everybody as much as possible if any polling locations change. We are certainly contacting people still and making sure if we can offer any assistance, and then also offering them any advice on what to do if they were signed up for a vote by mail and they are no longer receiving mail, some actions that they can take in order to make sure that they can still participate in the upcoming election.
I think my biggest concern is that people are not going to get their vote by mail ballots. That people are not going to be aware that their polling location has changed. We haven’t received notice yet that any polling locations have been flooded or damaged. But given that there are about 80 locations in Sarasota County, it’s hard to believe that not one of them has been affected in some ways. And so I definitely believe that people that are not maybe as active of voters are not necessarily going to be aware of those changes.
RL: Ron Turner outlines the three ways to ease your vote casting.
RT: You can vote by mail, you can vote early in person, and you can vote on election day. Each of these modes of voting offer different benefits. And I know voters have different preferences about how they cast a ballot in the election. But I want to strongly urge voters to consider how they want to vote and to make a plan. And they may consider using a different method than they have in the past for voting.
There may be lines on election day. There may be waits to vote on election day. We were already anticipating that before the hurricane. One way to reduce the lines is to select an alternate mode of voting. For example, early voting offers the traditional experience of casting a paper ballot in person, showing your photo ID, going through the same experience that you have on election day at your polling location, except you have flexibility. We will have 10 early voting sites in the county. Early voting runs through Sunday, November 3rd. That’s 14 days, 10 hours a day, at 10 sites in the county. If you’d like to vote in person, this may be a great option for you to get your ballot cast before election day. So don’t wait till the last minute. That’s my advice to you, so we can make this a process that is smooth and seamless for hundreds of thousands of voters here in Sarasota County.
RL: Ron Turner says the ballots will be secure. And he does not expect voter fraud to be an issue here in Sarasota County.
RT: I would assure them that in Sarasota County that their votes are secure. That we do everything that we can to make sure that the integrity of this election, regardless of two hurricanes, is going to remain intact for them. So there are a lot of procedures and processes that we go through here in Sarasota County to guarantee that. And every voter here in Sarasota County votes on a paper ballot. We also do a 100% independent automated audit after each election and we do a comparison on that audit system to the original tabulation system to make sure that those numbers reconcile.
Now I don’t have any concerns over any increased voter fraud in Sarasota County. I mean we certainly take the integrity of the election — and I do personally — very seriously to protect the integrity of this election. But I can tell you this team is committed to doing whatever it takes to make sure that every eligible voter and every eligible vote counts in this county and that every voice is heard in this county for this all important November 5th presidential general election.
RL: This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
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