In less than 35 days the votes of over 100,000 Leon county’s citizens will be announced to the public, and we will have helped elect the next president of the United States.
It will be a historic election and as your Leon County Supervisor of Elections, I hope I have the honor of overseeing the largest voter turnout in our county’s history.
That is our mission at the elections office – making sure that every American can access the voter registration process, vote, and have that vote accurately reflect your will.
That is how the process is supposed to work- and in Leon county, that is the way it will work.
But the first step in the electoral process begins with you registering to vote.
Florida is rapidly approaching the deadline for unregistered citizens to register.
The last day for people, who are not registered in Florida, to register is Monday, Oct. 6th.
Volunteers are conducting voter registration drives all across Leon county and the Office of the Supervisor of Elections will also be conducting registration drives on Saturday, Oct. 4th at five locations around town:
the Wal-Mart Supercenter on 4400 W. Tennessee Street and the other on 5500 Thomasville Road, Sam’s Club on 3122 Dick Wilson Way, the Sportsman Warehouse on 4059 Lagniappe Way (off Buck Lake Road and Highway 90), and Walgreens Drug Store on 100 E. Magnolia Drive (between South Monroe and South Adams Street).
Please take advantage of these efforts to make sure you can participate in this historic election. For example, to update a local address or name change after marriage, adjustments can be made at any of these locations.
The Office of Supervisor of elections efforts will also continue on Monday, October 6th, also known as bookclosing day, because that is the last day to add names to the voter registration books in Florida.
In addition to the office at the Bank of America Building (315 S. Calhoun Street – first floor), citizens can register at the main branch of the Leon County Public Library, on 200 West Park Avenue, or the New Leaf Market at 235 Apalachee Parkway.
Your vote is the great equalizer. Whether you are a millionaire or a starving student, each person has just one vote.
Don’t let it go to waste. This is your chance to use the vote and change the course of history, our nation’s as well as your own.
Remember, if voting were not important, people wouldn’t be sending out false emails trying to confuse and discourage student voters by telling them, wrongly, that voters’ driver license address need to match their voters’ registration address.
No, it doesn’t. Or that people can’t wear political clothes or buttons when they vote, again – false! Shamefully, it seems that some in our nation would rather suppress American voters than abide by the will of the majority.
We don’t tolerate this kind of deliberate voter interference in Leon County, and I can think of no better way to reply to those who would engage in these despicable tactics than to make sure you register and on election day – VOTE!
Ion Sancho is the Leon County Supervisor of elections. He can be contacted at ION@leoncountyfl.gov.