Lakewood Ranch early voting site continues to grow in popularity with voters. Here’s why
As Election Day approaches, the clock is winding down on time for early voting. But officials say one polling location is standing out as a popular spot for voters to fill out their ballots.
Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Michael Bennett said so far, early voting is going “outstanding.”
Before the polls opened Wednesday, more than 71,000 votes had already been cast in Manatee County, nearly a 29 percent turnout.
Of those , 51,758 were vote by mail ballots. The rest were early voters, more than 19,200 of them.
Leading the way is the early voting location in Lakewood Ranch.
With five early voting sites, Bennett said the Lakewood Ranch Town Hall location has stood out for its growing popularity. He said the site averages more than 1,000 voters a day, a number that has grown every year the town hall has been used for early voting.
In 2014, the site saw 4,488 voters. As of Wednesday afternoon. Bennett said 6,667 voters went through the polling location, already nearing the total number of voters there in 2016 at 6,836, and “by far” surpassing the number of voters at the Supervisor of Elections Office.
Lakewood Ranch resident Angela Campanella said she used to go into Bradenton to vote, but she voted at the town hall this time because of its convenience.
“It’s so much nicer,” Campanella said. “The staff here are great.”
Denny Horner said after voting Wednesday the site was “well run.”
Dozens of voters casually strolled in and out of the poll site Wednesday afternoon in a relatively steady flow. No one who spoke with the Bradenton Herald after voting had a complaint about their experience.
Bennett’s office can struggle to find polling locations for early voting, Bennett said, but the Lakewood Ranch Town Hall, which is not required to give the Supervisor of Elections space for voting, has opened their doors to “serve the community.”
“I think it’s just a credit to the people who live in Lakewood Ranch,” said Bennett. “And their community center is doing what it’s supposed to do, serving the community.”
The town hall opened as an early voting location in 2014, and has been a popular site ever since, becoming their largest site, said assistant supervisor Scott Farrington, who was working at the Lakewood Ranch polls Wednesday.
On the first day of early voting, a line formed outside the door to the Lakewood Ranch Town hall site. Jack Mathews said he stood in that line on Oct. 24.
Mathews said even when the line was wrapped around the building, it moved quickly.
“It’s just easy here,” Mathews said.
He normally casts his vote at the Harvest United Methodist Church, but the church is not an early voting site, so Mathews opted for the town hall because it’s “handy to the community” and has plenty of parking space.
But the population of Lakewood Ranch has also grown in the last few years. Lakewood Ranch recorded 1,206 new home sales in 2017 —good for the third best-selling master-planned community in the United States — and 775 new home sales in 2016.
It was ranked the fifth fastest-growing suburb in America in a study by Realtor.com released in July.
Farrington noted the area is densely populated, and many who live in the area have spent their entire voting lives going to the polls to cast their ballots. There can be a certain satisfaction that comes with physically dropping the ballot into the box, he said.
But the site, too, is convenient in the area, well known and easy for voters to maneuver in and out of, Farrington said.
After recently moving from Lakewood Ranch, Judy Hangartner said when she looked up her nearest polling site, the town hall came up. Her experience there for early voting Wednesday was “perfect, quick, easy,” she said.
“The neat part is they keep a small community atmosphere, they didn’t get in front of themselves,” Bennett said. “They’ve just done a wonderful job of welcoming voters out there.”
Early voting ends Nov. 3. Polls open on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.