Voters grow angry as polling places are moved out of gated area

“It’s a senior community and there are a lot of people who can’t get around,” said resident Loretta Young, 80. “They like to do their voting in person. If they have to get transportation someplace I can’t think how they’ll do it.”

The community bus takes people to the supermarket, she said, but there is nothing set up to go vote. “I know they do enjoy voting, it’s like an event for them,” Young said.

But Broward’s Supervisor of Elections office says it was the right thing to do. Three communities — in Sunrise, Coconut Creek and Parkland — had polling places located behind the gates, which meant non-residents had to bypass a gate to get to their polling site. The number of affected voters wasn’t available Friday.

“We are trying to eliminate polling places that require voters to pass through a gate,” said Joe Scott, the elections supervisor. “Sunrise Lakes Phases II and III are accessible without passing through a gate but Phase IV is behind a gate. That is what drove the decision.”

The new locations now have “plenty of space,” including more parking and handicap accessibility, he said.

Late Friday, in response to some of the complaints, Scott says he’ll reopen polling site Sunrise Lakes Phase IV in time for the general election, but not for the primary.

It’s unclear whether communities in other regions will face comparable concerns: Palm Beach County’s elections office said this week it didn’t have records to show whether voting precincts were moved from behind gates to other locations.

Scott said some gated polling sites that are made up exclusively of voters who live behind the gates remain in place, including the Century Village in both Pembroke Pines and Deerfield Beach, and Hollybrook Golf and Tennis Club in Pembroke Pines. “It’s better for a lot of people,” he said.

The changes have gotten the attention of local leaders, including Sunrise’s mayor, who emailed Scott this week, telling him the feedback from residents has been “extremely angry at the reduction and relocation of precincts.”

“It may be that this strategy of reducing or combining precincts is motivated by an effort to achieve additional efficiencies and savings for the SOE’s office,” Mayor Mike Ryan wrote. “While we encourage efficiencies and cost-saving strategies, those cannot be at the expense of voting turnout.

“We need to be doing more to encourage voting, not taking steps that may jeopardize turnout. I would note with the recent reporting of vote-by-mail ballots being held back by the SOE office, there may be more people concerned about their vote counting and thus increasing in-person voting at precincts.”

He was referring to 25,000 mail ballots for the August primaries and nonpartisan elections in Broward County that were mailed late to ensure accuracy of addresses and to make sure people don’t receive the wrong ballots.

Barbara Effman, president of the West Broward Club, said multiple senior residents throughout the county were “chiming in” at a recent meeting that their precincts had been consolidated, which means they might have to go a longer distance to vote — a nonpartisan issue.

Ivan Castro, Broward elections spokesman, said there are 345 voting precincts, down from 577. In the last general election in November 2020, there were 376 polling spots. There are now 263 locations.

Scott said some locations were “side by side or across the street” and could be removed. Other polling places were consolidated to save money and avoid the cost of staff to man polling places that are virtually empty, and to try to make locations easier for voters if they had to drive pass one poll to get their assigned one.

“There were all kinds of problems before,” he said.

But some voters said it makes them worried.

“They are supposed to make it convenient to vote and it’s less convenient,” Effman said of the Sunrise Lakes seniors. “You’re probably going to go to the wrong place and when you get there and there’s a line. You may not vote.”

“I’m very disappointed,” she said. “They are Democratically rich with voters, and the voters are getting older and they can’t walk to a precinct. … There are thousands of people who literally don’t have cars.

“I understand they wanted to make it easier to vote but the reality is seniors in Broward County won’t be able to get to the polls,” she said. “I am encouraging people to vote by mail but not everybody wants to vote by mail — some people are old school and it’s important to them, it’s part of their fiber and their make-up.”

Scott heard the worries.

Late Friday, Scott said he’s going to create a precinct for Sunrise Lakes Phase IV, and it will be reopened after the primary. “We’re open to feedback,” he said. “The mayor made his case. Residents can go back to voting at their clubhouse. But we’ll set it up differently so nobody has to go through the gate.”

Ryan said he was happy to hear that, but contended the problem is bigger than Sunrise.

“What we see is there has been a wholesale relocation of polling places and realignment of precincts,” he said. “I think it’s a countywide issue, and I think it’s a potential problem on multiple issues.”

Ryan said he fears on Election Day, people will still go to their old site to find it gone, and not vote at all, rather than research where they need to be. And because there are fewer polling places, that means more people at each site, which means less parking, he said.

“I’m deeply concerned,” he said.