Alachua County residents coming out in force and in style to vote early

Oct 19, 2020 12:00 pm

Alachua Resident Dan Vermillion arrived at the early voting center at Legacy Park in style with his 1960 Nash Rambler. He hopped out and dropped his mail-in-ballot into the official box under the watchful eye of volunteers who asked him if it was signed.

“I’m a lung transplant so I don’t like being around crowds,” Vermillion said and hopped back into his sleek black ride and passed by the line of more than 75 voters that had accrued by 9 a.m.

From October 19th through October 31st, the following early voting centers are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Early voting locations are as follows:

Supervisor of Elections Office (515 N Main Street, Suite 100, Gainesville)
Millhopper Branch Library (3145 NW 43rd Street, Gainesville)
Tower Road Branch Library (3020 SW 75th Street, Gainesville)
Alachua Legacy Park Multipurpose Center (15400 Peggy Road, Alachua)
Orange Heights Baptist Church (16700 NE SR 26, Hawthorne)
J. Wayne Reitz Union, University of Florida (655 Reitz Union Drive, Ground Level of the Career Connections Center, Gainesville)

Poll Deputy Rail Blachsher at the Legacy Center location said there are no more than eight people allowed into the voting area at a time as a capacity limit for voting during a pandemic. “So far so good, so good so far,” he said about the steady voting going on.

Bennett Ragan, campaign manager for House of Representatives Candidate Kayser Enneking was placing signs along the sidewalk and said that Enneking will be at the Reitz Union during early voting today.

Alachua Police Officer Robert Salter pulled up in his patrol vehicle decorated in pink in observation of Breast Cancer Awareness month. He dropped by and asked if emergency personnel in small towns with limited staff could jump ahead in the line but that’s not an option according to Poll Deputy Blachsher. Salter will return on his day off.

For voters who have received a mail-in-ballot but want to show up and vote in person, volunteers at the drop box said just bring in your ballot and the envelope that it came in and you can surrender that mail-in-ballot to have it voided and receive a new one on the spot.