9% turnout for early voting in Jacksonville elections, do you plan to vote?

JACKSONVILLE, Florida. – There are five days left until Election Day and early voting turnout is much lower than expected.

News4JAX visited the Highlands Branch Library’s early voting site on Thursday, and some voters said they weren’t surprised others didn’t show up to vote.

“There hasn’t been a lot of interest,” voter Danny Jackson said. When asked if he thought the negative campaign played a role, he replied, “It has a lot to do with it as well.”

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Another voter said he would vote no matter what. “It affects everything we do, everything around us, our whole life,” said voter Mason Logan.

Jacksonville voters have until Sunday, March 19 to vote at one of 20 Duval County early voting locations. Election day is Tuesday, March 21. There is no early voting on the Monday before the election. Early voting turnout has been low so far, at 9.31% as of Thursday, March 16.

Duval County Elections Supervisor Mike Hogan said he was surprised at the low turnout and will also be surprised if we actually get 30% of voters on Election Day.

“Yeah, we didn’t think it would be that low at this point in the game,” Hogan said.

Among those who voted early was mayoral candidate Donna Deegan. We asked him about participation.

“I would like to see a 100% participation rate. I don’t understand why people don’t come out to vote for the future of their city,” Deegan said. “But, it’s our job to motivate people to come out.”

Some have blamed the negative campaign for the mayoral race, saying they are simply ignoring the election. We’ll find out if that’s the case on election night when the results are announced, and what will happen for the second election if no one gets 50% plus one of the votes in any of the races.

Right now the focus is on getting more people to vote, and one thing that could be a factor is the weather. The weather authority isn’t predicting ideal weather for the election this weekend or Tuesday, and that worries Hogan.

“I looked at the weather report, and that doesn’t encourage me at all,” Hogan said. “So hopefully everyone will be out before Saturday and Sunday and definitely be out whether it rains or not.”

There is usually an early turnout increase the weekend before Election Day. This Sunday, there is an event near the legend center on the north side.

So tell us, are you voting in this election? Why or why not?

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