Students hoping to vote in the next local election will be disappointed to find that Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan won’t be opening the UNF Early Voting Site.

In the March 19 election, only 24 percent of Jacksonville’s registered voters participated. The next local election in May is expected to have a turnout of only 10 percent, according to Hogan. The UNF Early Voting Site had 448 people show up – the lowest turnout in the county. The second-lowest was the Edward Waters College site which had 553 people show up.

The decision to close the early voting site for the next election came down to cost and turnout rates.

UNF currently charges the Supervisor of Elections $5,000 to rent out space for an early voting site. Hogan told Spinnaker that UNF is the only early voting site that charges for space.

Another factor that went into the decision was the fact that there were no district races on the ballot for the UNF area, and there are already two early voting sites near the campus.

Hogan also told Spinnaker that starting in June, they will conduct research to see which early voting sites are best serving their communities in a cost-effective manner.

“Everything is on the table at the beginning of June,” Hogan said.

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