Voters Have Limits in Florida County

A newly appointed supervisor of elections in Duval County, Fla., opened additional early voting polling places under pressure from community activists. But attorneys for a voter rights coalition told a federal judge Friday that it wasn’t enough.

An attorney for the Jacksonville Coalition for Voter Protection and other groups told U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger that the county’s five early voting sites were inadequate for the county’s size, and requested four more. The county’s lawyer, Ernst Mueller, said it was too late for the county to open more early polling locations.

Duval County, whose population is more than a quarter black, had been the largest county in Florida with only one early voting polling place.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a demonstration in Jacksonville last week, saying the lack of additional polling places for early voting would hinder some poor, elderly and minority voters trying to cast ballots. Nearly 27,000 of the county’s votes -- many of them from black neighborhoods -- were thrown out in 2000.

Interim elections supervisor William Scheu arranged this week for four additional polling places to open today.

Since his appointment last week, Scheu has met daily with community leaders, representatives of both major parties, and the Bush and Kerry campaigns to hear concerns.

Local Democrats have expressed concern about new limitations on the weekend operating hours of these early voting sites. Duval County polls had previously been open for early voting from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, including the Aug. 31 primary election.

Scheu received a memo Tuesday from Dawn K. Roberts, director of the Division of Elections, saying that, to comply with state law, weekend early voting hours should not exceed eight hours total. Duval County had already advertised the weekend poll hours as 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The weekend voting times have been changed to 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays to “follow the law,” said Erin Moody, director of communications for the Duval County supervisor of elections.

Florida passed a law this spring requiring that all counties provide polling places for early voting 15 days before a general election.

County Democrats have criticized the reduced hours. But Republicans have viewed the early voting changes as “not a big deal,” said Duval County GOP chairman Mike Hightower.

During the week, Duval County polls are open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the supervisor’s office and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at other locations.

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Associated Press was used in compiling this report.