Early voting slow with one week until Primary Election

St Johns County Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes told Historic City News editor Michael Gold that if 30% of St Johns County’s registered voters cast a ballot in the Primary Election August 26th, she will be pleased. That number may be wishful thinking.

When the books closed, Monday, July 28th, there were 157,958 registered voters.

As of today, August 19, 2014, only 3,433 of the 11,724 absentee ballots mailed by the Elections Office had been voted. Of that total, 362 were mailed to military personnel overseas. About 1,000 of the absentee ballots were returned by the post office as undeliverable as addressed.

With only a week before Election Day, only 2,111 early ballots have been voted.

Oakes says that it is not unusual in gubernatorial election years to find larger turnouts at the actual precincts on Election Day; compared to presidential election years where early voting is stronger. Let’s hope she’s right.

Registered voters may vote in the August 26th Primary Election at any of the Early Voting sites within St. Johns County through August 23rd. Early Voting hours at all locations are 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily, including Sunday.

When voting in person you are required to provide current and valid photo and signature identification. If you don’t have proper identification, you must vote a provisional ballot.