Manatee, Sarasota election officials not concerned with Nicole

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - With Hurricane Ian making it more difficult for some voters to cast their ballots, and subtropical storm Nicole looming— Sarasota and Manatee County election officials state they’re not projecting it to deter voters from making it to the polls.

“Right now we’re keeping an eye on it,” said Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner. “Of course this one being close to an election we’re monitoring it carefully. But right now it looks like the weather is still going to be good [Monday] and on Election Day.”

While Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Michael Bennett explained he doesn’t believe it’ll be a big threat, he did say any kind of bad weather brings the possibility of less voters.

“Obviously, if there’s a big rain storm there’s always going to be a situation where you lose some people. I hope not—I hope that storm doesn’t affect us. But we’re really hoping we won’t see any kind of affect,” he said.

They said their biggest hurdle has been making voting more accessible. With Hurricane Ian destroying some of the polling locations in South Sarasota County, Ron Turner and his team have been trying to alert people to changed locations.

“If someone has one that’s changed—there were some in south county that were changed, they were either mailed a notice. We will have staff at the former locations directing them to the new location nearby. They can also go to our website at sarasotavotes.gov,” said Turner.

According to Bennett, especially with early voting, they’ve had a hard time adding locations further north and east in Manatee County.

“It’s been very, very difficult to find because there’s just not that many government owned buildings up in Parrish or further out east. Consequently we end up with some fairly long lines,” said Bennett.

Polling locations will be open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.