Re-Elect Jayne Hall for Haines City Commission Seat 1

Beautiful afternoon to come out and vote. See you at the polls 👀

My Granddaughter votes for the first time ❤

I can't do this without YOUR vote. Please go out and re-elect Jayne Hall

Vote! Haines City's future depends on it 🗣

Polling locations below:

Residents in precincts 302, 341, 407 and 408
Oakland Neighborhood Center,
915 Ave E
Residents in precincts 306, 405, 409, 413 and 414
Haines City Community Center,
555 Ledwith Ave

A vote for Jayne Hall is a vote for you.

Let's bring this home.

4 Polk cities hold municipal elections April 4

By KATHY LEIGH BERKOWITZ
[email protected]

Four Polk cities will hold municipal elections on April 4, with a total registered voter count at 42,393.

Participating cities include Bartow, Fort Meade, Haines City and Lake Wales.

City of Bartow voters are numbered at 11,211 as of the March 6 registration deadline. There are 2,907 City of Ft. Meade voters.

Haines City has the most voters with 18,699 and City of Lake
Wales has the next highest number of voters at 9,576.

Fort Meade’s election centers around a set of Charter amendments that need voter approval, while the other three cities have city commissioner races.

Ballots mailed for the Vote by Mail program totaled 4,608, but of those, 2,410 were returned as of Monday, according to a Fact Sheet published by Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards.

Edwards told the Winter Haven Sun that she remains optimistic about the number of mail ballots returned.

“That number doesn’t concern me, to get a return of 50 percent or more is to be expected,” she said, noting that anything more than that is “the frosting on the cake.”

She expects to receive another 200-300 mail in ballots.

But the real issue, she says, not just for the city elections, but for other elections in the fall, is that the Florida Legislature passed a Senate bill in 2021 that canceled all vote by mail ballot
requests in the state in 2020, causing voters to have to submit vote-by-mail requests more frequently.

Additionally, voters could no longer ask a trusted friend or caregiver to pick up or drop off a vote-by-mail ballot and it eliminated vote-by-mail drop boxes.

This move, she noted, required all cities to have to work harder to get voters to reapply for the Vote by Mail. Many citizens were surprised, she said, that they were not in fact still registered
to Vote by Mail.

“The good news is we have time,” she said.

Edwards said that in Polk County alone, 164,000 Vote-by-Mail requests were on file when they were all canceled.

Voter Turnout

As far as what she expects with this year’s voter turnout for the city elections, she says the only indicator is “history,” which shows that whether it is a Polk County city election or even a city as large as Atlanta, Georgia, “Voter turnout in municipal elections runs between 10-29 percent.”

“There’s just not a lot of interest in city elections,” she says.

Meanwhile, the Supervisor of Elections office stays busy and has learned that rather than make a massive effort in January, for example, to increase vote-by-mail participation, the key is to
spread the effort throughout the year.

This is largely due to people not being prepared for what they are going to do later in the year, she says. Using an example of winter visitors, she notes many “are not even sure where they will be” when city elections roll around.

Instead, she says, the office uses social media to spread the word.

Additionally, the office sends a postcard that has voting locations and hours, as well as a sample ballot, to all voters in the 13
Polk County cities.

The Supervisor of Elections Office also sets up table displays at various community events, and for that, they lean heavily on the much in-the-know city clerks whose focus is “hyper-local” to
learn how best to reach the community.

This is all in addition to signs placed in communities.

Will there be a run-off in Haines City?

Edwards predicts a run-off in Haines City, where their charter calls for a run-off if there is not one candidate that gets “50 percent plus one,” whereas in Bartow, the only run-off would be if there is a tie. And in Lake Wales, the rule is the highest “vote getter” wins the election.

Each city is in charge of running their municipal elections, courtesy of Home Rule, she said.

Rules for voting in person

There are some rules to follow when voting in person.

According to Florida Statutes (102.031(5) no photography is allowed in the polling room.

Additionally, there is a “protected zone” in accordance with Florida Statute 102.031(4)(a).

According to the statute, no one may solicit voters inside the polling place or within 150 feet of the entrance to any polling place or early voting site. The clerk or supervisor shall designate the
no-solicitation zone and mark the boundaries.

Things that fall within the bounds of “solicitation” include trying to seek any vote, fact, opinion, contribution, distributing any political or campaign material, and conducting a poll, except exit polls.

Vote-by-Mail ballots must be received by the Supervisor of Elections no later than 7 p.m. on April 4th.

Ballots can be either returned to Election Headquarters at 250 S Broadway Avenue in Bartow, or the Election Operations Center at 70 Florida Citrus Blvd. in Winter Haven, or mailed to P.O.
Box 7, Auburndale, 33823.

All polling locations will be open 7 a.m.- 7 p.m. on Election day.

The Winter Haven Sun, Polk News-Sun & Four Corners News-Sun will be posting election results on both social media pages and the websites once they are available. They are also available on PolkElections.gov after 7 p.m. Election night.

Photo Credit: Polk Elections website

Dedicated and hard working Haines City staff 💪

Jayne Hall and her supporters at La Mexicana

A vote for Jayne Hall is a vote for you!

Here is the Sample Ballot for Tuesday's Election. The voting locations are as follows:

Residents in precincts 302, 341, 407 and 408
Oakland Neighborhood Center,
915 Ave E
Residents in precincts 306, 405, 409, 413 and 414
Haines City Community Center,
555 Ledwith Ave

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The people we elect will make decisions affecting our businesses, Haines City's economy and our future.

I strongly encourage you to vote and make a difference Tuesday. Please consider re-electing Jayne Hall.

Jayne Hall is out asking for your support.