Campaign signs line Hendricks Avenue outside the San Marco library polling site. An orange cone indicates the 150-foot buffer where signs are not allowed. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 24, 2024 at 12:27 pm
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Q: Early voting began this week, and it raised questions for some Jacksonville Today readers. We’ll tackle two of them today.
First, reader Jill W. wonders about political signs outside the polling site at the San Marco library. They were in the same area as the official Early Voting signs, on what appeared to be library grounds, she says.
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Jill asks:
“Is this permissible advertising?”
A: It appears to be.
Jerry Holland, Duval County supervisor of elections, says his office has jurisdiction over signs within 150 feet of the door to the polling location. The ones Jill spotted are not that close.
“Outside we have no jurisdiction,” Holland says. “The library would be over the property outside that 150 feet.”
A check of campaign signs along LaSalle Street, which borders the library’s early voting site, show they are outside the orange cone that marks 150 feet from the entrance. And along Hendricks Avenue, the signs are fairly far away from the library and entrance.
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The 150-foot buffer also applies to campaign workers handing out pamphlets to voters.
Florida Statute 102.031 says anyone inside the 150-foot zone cannot hand out campaign material, conduct a poll unless the voter has already cast a ballot, get someone to sign a petition, sell any item or engage in any activity intending to influence or affect a voter.
Outside 150 feet, it’s legal for those workers to approach voters.
Touch screen voting
Q: And then our second question. Carol B. was waiting in a long line at a voting site when a poll worker asked if anyone wanted to vote electronically. She and another person raised their hands, and they were signed in and used touch screen voting machines.
“Meanwhile everyone was waiting in line because they wanted to vote using a paper ballot rather than the touch screen,” Carol says. “There were literally only a handful of people voting electronically. I do not remember this happening in the primary.”
“I am just curious, why we aren’t all using the touchscreen machines for this election?”
A: Some Duval County voters choose to use Express Vote touch screens, and others still fill out ovals on a paper ballots, Holland says.
The state of Florida requires both options to be available. Some voters request an Express Vote ballot because the process is faster and helps to reduce wait times, Holland says.
The Express Vote machines are not connected to the internet, so there is absolutely no way anyone can remotely hack in and change votes, he says.
