Primary day in Florida is just over one month away on August 18, and vote-by-mail ballots are already starting to arrive in voters’ mailboxes.
Robert Phillips, the chief elections officer for the Duval County Supervisor of Elections office, said in-person voters will notice differences at the polls from what they saw during Florida’s March Presidential Preference Primary election, when the number of COVID-19 cases was low compared to now.
Apart from additional hand sanitizer and disinfecting of the equipment, Phillips said the major difference will be PPE.
“Even in March, we provided hand sanitizers and cleaning materials and all that to the polling locations. We'll be doing that again. What we did not have before was the masks, gloves and face shields for the poll workers,” Phillips said.
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For voters, Phillips said masking up will be up to them, even though a countywide mask mandate remains in effect for all public places.
“We're not going to force voters to wear a mask if they come in, if they don't want to wear one,” Phillips said.
He said the polling locations won’t deny someone the right to vote because they don’t have a mask on.
To avoid large crowds at the county’s 199 polling locations, Phillips said the office is promoting voting by mail (also called absentee voting), along with voting early at the 18 early voting sites the county will offer in the two weeks before the election.
The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is August 8. The deadline to register to vote is July 20. Vote-by-mail ballots can be requested here.
Because Florida’s primary elections are closed, only voters registered with a political party will see several of the races. Unaffiliated voters will have considerably shorter ballots with only nonpartisan races like judges and school board members.
Here are all of the races voters in Duval County will see:
Congressional District 4
- Erick J Aguilar (R)
- John H. Rutherford (R - Incumbent)
(Winner will face Donna Deegan (D) and Christopher Eagle (I) in the November Election)
Congressional District 5
REPUBLICAN
DEMOCRAT
- Albert Chester
- LaShonda “L.J.” Holloway
- Al Lawson (Incumbent)
State Representative District 12
REPUBLICAN
- Colin Ross McArthur
- Clay Yarborough (Incumbent)
DEMOCRAT
State Representative District 13 - (All District 13 voters can participate regardless of party affiliation because no other candidates are running)
- Tracie Davis (D - Incumbent)
- Cynthia Smith (D)
State Representative District 14
- Kimberly Daniels (D - Incumbent)
- Angie Nixon (D)
(Winner will face Nancy Lynn Kapetovic (I) in the November election)
State Representative District 15
- Jay McGovern (D)
- Tammyette Thomas (D)
(Winner will face Wyman Duggan (R - Incumbent) in the November election)
City Council District 4
- Kevin Carrico (R)
- Nicole Hamm (D)
- Don Redman (R)
Neptune Beach City Council Seat 3
- Esther Byrd
- John Cauley
- Kerry Chin (Incumbent)
Clerk of the Circuit Court
- Leon Jackson (R)
- Jody Phillips (R)
- Scott Wilson (R)
(Winner will face Jimmy Midyette (D) in November election)
County Judge Group 1
- Isaac D. East
- Scott Mitchell (Incumbent)
County Court Judge Group 6
- Rhonda Peoples Waters
- Erin Perry (Incumbent)
School Board District 1
School Board District 3
School Board District 5
- Warren Anthony Jones (Incumbent)
- Brenda Ann Jordan
School Board District 7
- Lori Hershey (Incumbent)
- Matthew M. Schellenberg
- John Turner
Republican State Commiteewoman
- Sharon B. Light
- Karyn D. Morton
- Rose Nettles
- Ginger Soud
- Judith B. Youngblood
VOTING PRECINCT RACES
Precinct 204 Committeeman (Republican)
- Richard E. Dorman Jr.
- Andre Ferreira
- Eric Sloan
- John W. Thomas Jr.
Precinct 206 Committeewoman (Republican)
- Carol Brock
- Jane Carr
- Jane T. Cunningham
- Candace Lautzenheiser
- Karyn D. Morton
- Debra A. Roberts
- Laurie Sleffel
Precinct 401 Committeewoman (Republican)
- Brenda Taylor Black
- Elizabeth Damato
- Rebecca Damato
Precinct 404 Committeewoman (Republican)
- Mick Barr
- Gary R. Dickinson
- Bruce R. Duggar
- John H. Hedquist
- Mark W. Marchand
Precinct 1408 Committeewoman (Republican)
- Cynthia Ganas
- Vicki Renee Hand
- Sharon B. Light
- Kathy Stoprya
- Carolyn Tucker
Precinct 305 Committeewoman (Democrat)
- Siobhan Christman
- Kimberly Doctor
- Kristan Palermo
- Myra Rubinstein
Precinct 312 Committeewoman (Democrat)
- Thayla Gontrum
- Mina Masody
- Julie Spelman
Precinct 1407 Committeeman (Democrat)
- Nathaniel L. Edwards
- Daniel L. Henry
- Mark Scaggs
Precinct 1408 Committeewoman (Democrat)
- Albrista Benwell-Brady
- Heather Dixon
- Cathy S. Heffernan
Sky Lebron can be reached at slebron@wjct.org, 904-358-6319 or on Twitter at @SkylerLebron.
