Nearly 50 churches and civil rights groups have joined the Southern Poverty Law Center in demanding that Pinellas County open an early voting site in Childs Park, a South St. Petersburg neighborhood that is home to roughly a third of the city's Black population and currently has no such site of its own. With early voting set to begin October 19 and run through November 1, the pressure campaign is now aimed squarely at Supervisor of Elections Julie Marcus, who received a formal warning letter from SPLC attorneys late last month.
A Letter Raising Federal Civil Rights Concerns
The letter, signed by SPLC senior staff attorney Matletha Bennette, was sent to Marcus on September 25 and warns that failing to provide a South St. Petersburg early voting site risks violating Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act along with the 14th and 15th Amendments, according to Poliverse. Bennette said the current map of voting sites does not appear geographically located to provide equal voting opportunity, and that an area containing a third of St. Petersburg's Black population currently has no early voting site at all, as detailed by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. The coalition behind the push includes the Pinellas County Urban League, St. Petersburg NAACP, Black Voters Matter, and the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area, which first petitioned Marcus for a South St. Petersburg site back in March.
Pinellas County currently operates seven early voting sites for the November general election: two in Clearwater, a downtown St. Petersburg office, the J.W. Cate Recreation Center in North St. Pete, and single locations in Gulfport, Largo, and Palm Harbor. During the 2026 primary, the downtown office was the only early voting location open anywhere in South Pinellas County, since the Gulfport site is designated to open only during general elections, the same account notes.
County Cites a Five-Mile Standard and State Law
Pinellas Deputy Supervisor of Elections Dustin Chase told the Tampa Bay Times that early voting sites are placed so that all county residents fall within five miles of a location, and he argued that opening a site in Childs Park could violate Florida law unless additional sites are added elsewhere in the county. That standard traces to Florida Statute Section 101.657, which allows supervisors to establish early voting locations at libraries, city halls, or government facilities but requires that sites be geographically located to afford equal voting opportunity to all county residents, per the Tampa Bay Times. Marcus's office has also pointed to voting by mail and voting on Election Day at a closer polling place as available alternatives, and has said adding an early voting site might require adding more sites elsewhere to comply with equal access law.
The newspaper's reporting also notes that turnout data from 2020, 2022, and 2024 shows an overwhelming majority of Pinellas voters cast mail-in ballots rather than voting in person early or on Election Day, a pattern officials point to in arguing that physical early voting sites matter less than advocates suggest.
Transportation Gaps Concentrated in South St. Pete
Advocates counter that mail voting does not solve the problem for everyone, and that South St. Petersburg voters face disproportionate transportation and vehicle-access barriers, according to Bennette. A Southern Poverty Law Center census analysis cited by Poliverse found that 8.8% of occupied households in South St. Petersburg lack a personal vehicle compared to 6.9% countywide, with vehicle non-ownership climbing above 73% in one census block group that is more than 68% Black. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay reports that for someone with a car, a five-mile trip takes five to ten minutes, but for some South St. Petersburg residents without one, the same trip can take about an hour by bus.
Census data cited by Poliverse also shows that South St. Petersburg neighborhoods have population densities exceeding 1,000 residents per square mile, well above the countywide average, concentrating the access gap in one of the county's most densely populated areas. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay further reports that Gulfport was a sundown town within living memory, and that some Black voters may not feel comfortable voting there, a factor the Childs Park coalition has raised in pressing for a site closer to home.
A Decade-Old Request Resurfaces
The current push echoes one from a decade ago: Creative Loafing Tampa Bay reports that churches called for an early voting site in South St. Petersburg in 2016 and even offered their own properties to host one, an offer the election supervisor at the time declined. The South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area, a 4,777-acre district that received $15.1 million in local housing funds last month, remains a focal point for city investment, as Hoodline previously reported, even as the voting access question stays unresolved.
Florida's voter registration deadline for the November general election is October 5, and vote-by-mail ballot requests are due no later than 5 p.m. on the 12th day before the election. Whether the Southern Poverty Law Center's warning prompts Pinellas County to add a Childs Park site before early voting begins on October 19, or leads to federal litigation instead, remains an open question as the clock runs down.
