JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Monday marked the first day of early voting in Duval County.
While some voters may be able to walk to an early voting location, it's quite a hike for others.
The Office of Elections is looking to add another early voting site to serve the fast growing area at the far Southeast corner of the county.
"I really forgot today was early voting, but I was passing by and saw the signs so figured I'd get it over with because I vote in every election," said Shirley Jones after casting her ballot.
Early voting is always convenient for Shirley Jones, she lives less than a mile away from the FSCJ Deerwood site.
It's the closest site to her, but it's also the closest site for voters in the Bartram/Nocatee area all the way down by the county line.
"That's kind of inconvenient for a lot of people after working all day and they're tired and don't want to have to jump on I-295 with the traffic backed up," said Jones.
The trek from Bartram Springs Elementary School at the furthest southern point of Duval County to FSCJ Deerwood takes more than 20 minutes.
Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan says they've spent months looking to add a site for folks near the county line, but there's a hurdle in the way.
"We have to use public facilities, and there just aren't - there's no libraries in that area, there's no community centers in that area," said Hogan.
City Councilman Matt Carlucci says building things like that in areas with sudden population spikes can be tough to keep up with.
"The city is always chasing these new suburban sprawl neighborhoods," said Carlucci. "It's hard to stay ahead of new construction like that."
As for an early voting site, Carlucci said by looking at the map, he can see areas in just about every corner of the county that could use one.
"Hopefully we can take a big view of this after the election and see besides the Southeast where else there might need to be some early voting sites," said Carlucci.
The elections supervisor said that a new law change will allow them to look at private spaces for early voting sites, so they've expanded their search a bit.
But for this election, there's the same 19 early voting locations we've had for months, and most of them are open from 10-6 every day for the next two weeks.
You can find that list here: Duval County Early Voting Sites May 2023