JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For some, going to the polls this year to vote can be overwhelming.
The pandemic and the large crowds are already causing problems, but given this tense election season, some people say that tension is leading to problems at early voting sites.
One Jacksonville man said campaigners forced him away from an early voting site on the Northside.
News4Jax caught up with Robert Hyer as he was going in to vote for the very first time in his life at the Highlands Branch Library on Dunn Avenue. Hyer said he tried to do that Tuesday but when he arrived he was greeted outside with a huge balloon mocking President Donald Trump and a billboard truck in the parking lot of the library pushing Democratic candidates.
“They handed me a Biden pamphlet, and I said, ‘I am not voting for Biden,’ and then I was kind of personally attacked. They were saying, ‘Well, we’re not doing that voting. We are not doing the Trump thing here. You take your %4# and find somewhere else to vote,’” Hyer said.
He said he left without voting and came back Wednesday to successfully cast his ballot.
Hyer said he felt intimidated the first time he tried to vote.
“And I’m a big guy, 6-8, and there were multiple people standing around,” Hyer said. “Imagine how many other people that has happened to.”
It’s common to see campaigners for both parties at all early voting sites. There are rules they must follow, primarily to be no closer than 150 feet from the door leading inside a polling location.
Robert Phillips of the supervisor of elections office said it can be a problem.
“Most of the complaints that we get are about campaigners. What we generally do is ask both parties to tone it down if they have any control over those campaigners and if they’re outside the 150-foot zone,” Phillips said.
He added it’s important to realize that campaigners can come up to you if it’s outside 150 feet from the polling entrance.
News4Jax did not see any problems at the Highland location on Wednesday. We spoke with Democratic campaigners who were at the site about what happened.
Devron Herring said what Hyer described did not take place.
“Everybody’s happy. Everybody’s cool. At the end of the day on Nov. 3, we are going to know who won,” Herring said.
For now, Hyer is happy he was able to vote at the Highlands library site on Wednesday, but he believes it should have never been a problem in the first place.
News4Jax reached out to the head of the Duval Democratic Party for comment but we haven’t heard back yet.