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Activists Criticize Limited Hours Of Duval's Early Voting Sites

UPDATED: 3:48 pm EDT October 21, 2004

With more than 3,700 ballots cast at the downtown office since Monday, Duval County election officials are preparing to open four additional sites for early voting on Saturday.

But election activists are still complaining that the hours for early voting are not what the county's brand new supervisor of election promised.

Late Wednesday, plans were finalized to open early voting at four suburban libraries:

  • Bradham Brooks Northwest Regional, 1755 Edgewood Ave. W.
  • Southeast Regional, 10599 Deerwood Park Blvd.
  • Regency Branch, 9900 Regency Square Blvd.
  • Willowbranch Branch, 2875 Park St.

    Monday through Friday, while the downtown office will be open for voting 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., voting hours at the libraries will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

    But weekend hours for voting at the library sites and the supervisor's office at 105 East Monroe St. will be 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, which has prompted criticism from Democratic officials and civil rights activists.

    They are not pleased that the offices will be open only four hours each weekend day. They said the supervisor promised eight-hour voting periods both Saturdays and Sundays in a full-page ad the office ran in Wednesday's newspaper.

    Lines outside Duval elections officeDuval County interim Supervisor of Elections Bill Scheu -- in charge of the office for only 36 hours -- said he set the shorter hours because of his understanding of the state rules.

    "Weekends, there are no more than eight hours in the aggregate, so I'm bound by the statute," Scheu said Wednesday evening.

    All five locations will close at 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 1 -- the day before Election Day.

    City leaders began discussing the addition of more early voting sites on Monday, the day former Supervisor of Elections John Stafford resigned, citing health reasons. It was also several days after a civil rights group began protests outside the elections office and one day after Gov. Jeb Bush said on national television that he disagreed with the plan for one early voting location in Jacksonville.

    "We passed a law that created a standard for early voting, and it should be spread out across the community," Bush said in an interview on ABC News' "This Week" Sunday. "That's the whole point, is to get people to vote early."

    With 500,000 voters, Duval was the state's most populous county with only one site.

    Protesters began picketing the Duval County elections office last week after Assistant Supervisor Dick Carlburg told activists with the Southern Christian Leadership Council that it was too late to open more than one early voting location.

    The Jacksonville City Council approved spending $100,000 to fund additional sites, but a city attorney sided with Carlburg, saying it was too late to set up secure voting sites under state guidelines.

    But that plan changed Monday after Stafford resigned and Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, the state's top election official, met with Duval County officials. Within 48 hours, plans for four additional early voting sites were announced.


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