Politics

First, know where you're voting

Several polling places have changed. It can't hurt to double-check.

By JUSTIN GEORGE and JEFF TESTERMAN, Times Staff Writers
Published January 29, 2008

TAMPA - This morning, several thousand Hillsborough County voters will be heading to new polling locations after the Supervisor of Election's Office moved some sites and corrected addresses before today's primary.

All 67,000 affected voters should have received notification letters weeks in advance of the changes directing them to the right polling site, said Jim Reed, assistant elections supervisor. A quarter-page notice was published in the Tampa Tribune.

But whether there will be signs directing voters to the right location from the old ones is in question.

In Precinct 303, elections workers hung up signs Monday at the College Hill Library directing voters to Allen Temple AME Church, the new polling site. The move surprised library workers, who weren't aware of the switch, said Suzy George, Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System services manager.

Precincts 359 and 365 were moved from St. James Methodist Church in Tampa Palms to the nearby Family of Christ Lutheran Church at 16190 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard because of space concerns, said St. James administrator Bob Douglas.

Elections officials asked St. James communications director Linda Webb to put signs up directing voters to the new polling place. So Webb created two PowerPoint signs on notebook-size paper and affixed them to church doors, she said.

In Precinct 571, the polling site was moved to the Tampa Bay Baptist Conference Center. But the Rev. Jack Coad said no sign was placed at Trinity Presbyterian Church directing voters to the new location.

"That's a good idea," said Coad, Trinity's pastor. "I'll try and do that myself."

Reed said the election's office has done everything required when making polling site changes.

"By law you're supposed to post a notice in old polling places on election day," he said, noting the Justice Department was made aware of the changes.

Before the March 2007 election, the election's office penned a news release saying it sent voters in two precincts letters about polling site switches but in reality never sent them. Officials said they decided not to because they didn't have required permission from the Justice Department to make the switch.

There were 33 polling site changes listed on the supervisor of election's Web site before today's primary. Notations mark whether the change was an address change, building name change or both.

However, some notations are missing; so readers should read the online notice carefully. In Precincts 589 and 591, for instance, ballots will be cast at the First United Methodist Church of Lutz, which moved to 960 W Lutz Lake Fern Road from just down the road.

Justin George can be reached at jgeorge@sptimes.com or 813 226-3368.

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Voters can see the notice of polling site changes at www.votehillsborough.org/content.aspx?id=243&s=243.

[Last modified January 29, 2008, 06:43:14]