A national civil rights group has renewed a call for Pinellas County to establish an early voting site to serve neighborhoods south of downtown St. Pete.
By failing to provide one, the Southern Poverty Law Center said, the county is violating the voting rights of people who live in those neighborhoods, many of whom are Black.
Matletha Bennette, a senior staff attorney for the group, sent a letter to Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Julie Marcus late last week. Publicized on the group’s website this week, the letter says the county has denied adding an early voting location in southern St. Petersburg, despite Black residents having repeatedly asked for a spot in the last decade.
“The absence of a site in this community imposes distinct geographic and transportation burdens on Black voters, including many residents who do not have access to a private vehicle,” Bennette wrote.
Pinellas has designated seven early voting locations in the county for November’s general election. There are two in Clearwater, two in St. Petersburg, and three others in Gulfport, Palm Harbor and Largo. The two in St. Petersburg include the supervisor of elections office downtown on First Avenue North and the J.W. Cate Recreation Center on 22nd Avenue North.
The closest early voting location to southern part of the St. Petersburg peninsula is in Gulfport. Bennette wrote that Gulfport’s history as a “sundown town,” where Black people were not allowed within city limits after sunset and could face violence if they lingered, makes some St. Petersburg residents reluctant to vote there.
Pinellas Deputy Supervisor of Elections Dustin Chase said the office chose early voting sites to “potentially fill a void.” The office decides early voting locations based on where voters from all across the county could go, he added.
Florida law allows elections supervisors to put early voting sites at city halls, public libraries or other amenities owned by a community. Each site has to be “geographically located so as to provide all voters in the county an equal opportunity to cast a ballot,” the law says. Chase added that the county chooses sites where all voters are within five miles of an early voting location.
Chase said the office believes it could violate state law since a southern St. Petersburg site wouldn’t be centrally located for residents in other areas of the county.
“If we put another one, we’re potentially violating that same statute by not having other early voting sites equally accessible to other voters in Pinellas County,” Chase said. “There are plenty of communities which could potentially need an early voting site, triggered by the fact that we would be putting an early voting site in the Childs Park area.”
Most voters in Pinellas vote by mail, Chase said. Voter turnout data for 2020, 2022 and 2024 show that most Pinellas voters used mail-in ballots. After each election, the office analyzes how voters cast their ballot.
“If they’re overwhelmingly choosing to cast a ballot using a mail ballot, then we encourage people to continue using the method they feel most comfortable with,” Chase said. “If we see changes in the way the electorate is exercising their right to vote, we make those changes accordingly.”
At the end of the letter, Bennette said the law center requests that Pinellas operate at least one early voting site south of downtown St. Petersburg, designate another mail-in ballot drop box there and coordinate with the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority to provide free, nonpartisan transportation to the closest early voting locations.
Nearly 50 civil rights, faith, neighborhood, and civic organizations and community leaders asked the office in March for a site specifically in the Childs Park neighborhood in 2026, Bennette said.
“The above sequence of events is highly suggestive of a pattern of intentionally ignoring or minimizing the legitimate concerns of Black citizens of voting age in Pinellas County and likewise reflects a voting system that is not equally open to these voters,” the letter read.
Early voting starts Oct. 19 and runs through Nov. 1. The deadline to register to vote is Monday.
