NAACP Claims Voter Suppression In Precinct Changes

The president of the Sarasota chapter of the NAACP claims that consolidating voter precincts in Sarasota County constitutes voter suppression.

"To me this is the classic case of voter suppression where intentional or not, voters will be surprised by these changes in and 2012 we cannot allow voters to be surprised in this community," NAACP President Trevor Harvey told the Tuesday.

The commissioners approved the precinct changes 4-1 but not before a tense conversation between the commission, community members and Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent. Commissioner Carolyn Mason voted against the precincts.

(The new precincts can be viewed in PDF form to the right of this story.)

Precincts are being consolidated — from 156 to 98 — to save taxpayers money because several precincts did not have enough participation. Early voting and "no excuse" absentee ballots — where reasons requesting a ballot aren't necessary — have contributed to lower turnout on Election Day and triggered the changes, Dent said.

In 2008, 60 percent of voters voted before Election Day and 40 percent voted on Election Day, Dent said. Sarasota County also has six early voting sites to serve its 270,000 registered voters, Dent added.

In addition to that, folks won't have to travel that far.

"All across, 3.2 miles is the average distance that someone would have to travel," Dent said.

Harvey said some folks would have to walk 20 blocks because they can't afford a bus ride to the polling place, and Dent said she's not aware of any case where that's true, and an absentee ballot could be requested instead by calling the Supervisor of Elections.

"People don't need to worry about walking to the polls. People don't need to worry about taking the bus to the polls," Dent said. "They don't need to worry about spending money. A 45-cent stamp will do it."

Commissioner Jon Thaxton was concerned that outreach wasn't enough and feared something minor could trigger a Department of Justice investigation while other commissioners believed the issue is overblown while Commissioner Mason was also critical of outreach.

"It's hard to formulate where the polling places are going to be," Thaxton said. "I had trouble finding my own polling place."

Commissioner Nora Patterson said it's not a big deal.

"I've lived here for 42 years and my polling place has been changed probably five times, and it's not the end of the world. It's not that huge of a thing," she said. "The distance was always approximately the same. It sounds like there's not going to be a huge variation here."

Additionally, Dent was unable to tell people where they will vote so far because the Department of Justice didn't approve Congressional and state House and Senate districts until April 30.

"So we were not going to start educating anyone until we knew what lines are going to be in place. The plan is for us to go ahead upon approval by you to mail this month to every voter that the polling places have been consolidated, may have changed and to watch the mail for your new voter information card," Dent said.

Dent added she doesn't see the precincts being a problem with the Department of Justice.

Thaxton referenced a Hillsborough County investigation into voting issues. Hillsborough, Hardy, Collier, Monroe and Hendry counties must obtain federal approval before changing election rules or procedures due to past discrimination. However, the rest of the counties in the Florida do not have to obtain that approval whereas other states affected by the measure, Section 5 of the Voting Act of 1965, are covered in their entirety. That means Sarasota wouldn't have to get initial federal approval. However, another state law is also being criticized for outlawing voter registration drives and other measures.

Former Sarasota Mayor Kelly Kirschner, who is executive director of Unidos Now, was concerned about the Hispanic community's place in voting.

"We have great concern particularly in north Sarasota that has the highest density of Hispanic population in all of Sarasota County that any change we're doing is as much as possible to engage that community and figuring out how we do a better job of integrating this fabric of the community," he said.

Becky Ayech, president of the Myakka Community Club welcomed the change having volunteered and worked elections.

"We have a precinct that serves only 300 people — one subdivision and all the rest of us go to the church. Through the years that I worked there, when the redistricting took place 10 years ago the question always was why are you having me vote here when I can see my polling place?" she said.

Commissioner Joe Barbetta, who prefers everyone voting by mail like Oregon, said the controversy Dent experienced is unwarranted.

"I'm having real difficulty of the criticism that you're facing because we have every opportunity to vote. You can vote absentee. Anybody in your family can request it.  You don't have to walk to the poll if you can't make it," he said. "I'm trying to figure out what all the consternation is about. Maybe I'm missing something."

What Happens Next

New voter information cards will be mailed to every registered voter in Sarasota County in June, Dent said. 

Voters are assigned to precincts in numbers that match their county commissioner district, she said. For instance, District 1 residents will be in precincts starting with 100, District 2 in 200, and so on.

That mailing will including options of how to vote, where your polling place is and what districts you are in.

"We already scheduled five town halls in each of the county commission districts early in June to answer questions voters will have," Dent added.

The Sarasota town halls will start at 5:30 p.m. on:

• Wednesday, June 13 at Twin Lakes Park, 6700 Clark Road

• Tuesday, June 19 at

• Thursday, June 21 at , 1845 34th St.

Resources

For more information on voting in Sarasota, visit http://www.sarasotavotes.com/ or call 941-861-8600. The Supervisor of Elections is located at 101 S. Washington Blvd, Sarasota.