St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman joined community activists Friday in urging Pinellas County elections supervisor Deborah Clark to open a polling place for early voting in south St. Petersburg.
Kriseman and the others, the Revs. Manuel Sykes of Bethel Community Baptist Church and Louis Murphy of Mt. Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church, said access to early voting is crucial to giving people a voice in choosing the elected officials who represent them. With many people working jobs and taking care of children, early voting is an important right.
They agreed that Clark’s office does have early polling places but none are in south St. Pete. The closest is at the Court House, 545 First Ave. N.
That’s not convenient for all who don’t have transportation. Those who do find it difficult to get a parking place in downtown St. Petersburg. Those parking places cost money and police are diligent about fining those who park overtime, they said.
Kriseman said the city had written Clark a letter offering the Lake Vista Recreation Center, 1401 62nd Ave. S, as a possible polling location. Kriseman said the city was willing to work with Clark’s office to make access to early voting a priority.
“The response we got was, ‘Sorry, we’re not interested,’” Kriseman said.
Jason Latimer, elections office spokesman, said officials in Clark’s office were confident that they have provided easy ballot access to all Pinellas voters by using mail ballots. Latimer said about 41 percent of voters are using mail-in ballots, which go directly to peoples’ homes and can be voted on at one’s leisure. Those can be mailed back to Clark’s office or dropped off at the tax office across the street from Lake Vista, he said.
He added that, because this is a presidential election, the clerk’s office is going to open two satellite early voting places in addition to the three at the various elections offices. One of those is in Palm Harbor. The other is in nearby Gulfport at the Gulfport Neighborhood Center, 1617 49th St. S.
