Primary Morning

Standing at precinct 14, she waved to voters from underneath a green raincoat. The August primary had arrived.

“I have been hyped all day,” said Clorissti Mitchell, a candidate for the District 3 seat on the Escambia County Utilities Authority.

The candidate was making the rounds to the polls. She’d been riding on energy provided via election-day excitement since 5:30 this morning.

“Do I look like I need coffee?” Mitchell joked, before greeting another voter.

Nearby, hunkered underneath a large umbrella, supporters of county commission candidate Lumon May, estimated that around 65 voters had visited the Frickers Community Center thus far.

A number of voters to the community center have been turned away this morning. They were redirected to their correct polling location.

“They redrew the lines is what happened,” said Ted Puryear, a May supporter.

“After the census,” added Mitchell.

The group points to a house up the street from the community center as an example. The neighboring resident apparently now has been assigned to a different polling location.

“A lot of people don’t vote, and then you make it complicated for them and they don’t vote at all,” said Raymond Reese, another May supporter.

Inside the community center, Precinct 14 Clerk Sandra Savage confirmed that some voters had been redirected to a different location.

“They sent letters out,” she said. “I received mine a couple of weeks ago.”

The clerk said that the polling boundaries were recently redrawn. She said about ten people had been redirected so far.

“I use to vote here,” Savage said, explaining that she lived nearby. “I can’t no more.”