JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Like clockwork, Debra Baldwin would check her mailbox every day to try and find what she was looking for. She never did.
She and her daughter moved to Jacksonville in April of 2021. They have been patiently waiting for their voter registration cards, but patience is an understatement.
Baldwin said she doesn't understand what is going on because she's reached out to offices and can't get a straight answer.
"I'm thinking 'yeah, it doesn't take five months to get a voter registration card.'" Baldwin said.
Time is of the essence. For Baldwin, she needs it to cast a ballot this upcoming August and file for divorce. She isn't alone in the wait.
The Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office said it could not send voter information cards for a period of time because of two lawsuits on redistricting.
First Coast News reached out to Mike Hogan, Supervisor of Elections. He explained what was taking so long in an e-mail.
Hogan also mentioned that cards were not sent out yet, because of a paper shortage. Officials say voter information cards will be sent out before the August primary.
The entire statement from Hogan reads:
"As information, voter information cards are not required to vote, in fact our Poll Workers will not ask to see your voter Information card nor can it be accepted as a form of Identification. Currently, we are not sending out individual Voter Information Cards because we are completing the Re-Districting of Duval County. Hundreds of thousands of Duval County voters will be impacted as their precinct and or the various political districts - Congressional Districts, State House and State Senate Districts, City Council Districts and School Board Districts have changed because the new political district lines have been redrawn.
In addition, there have been two lawsuits filed on Redistricting that impacts Duval County:
- A lawsuit was filed at the Federal Court dealing with Florida Congressional District 4. So far there have been four court decisions most involving “Stays” - the first decision was to litigate the issue – that decision was appealed, and the appeal court ordered a “stay” meaning we should follow the new lines created by the Florida State Legislature. Then the plaintiffs appealed the appeals court’s decision and they prevailed and the “stay” was lifted - meaning we must follow a different set of lines. Back to the drawing board. Then the defendants appealed to a higher court and were granted a permanent stay until after the Election. Each time a new decision was made by the courts we were delayed which is why we are behind our normal calendar. We just got the go ahead less than 10 days ago. The defendants are the State of Florida, the Secretary of State and all 67 Florida Supervisors of Elections. That
- At almost the same time as lawsuit #1, a lawsuit was filed at the Federal Court dealing with Duval County’s Re-Districting. This lawsuit has had similar court actions that caused our office to be delayed in finishing Re-Districting. We received a final go ahead just a few weeks ago. We have finished Re-Districting and will be sending every voter a new Voter Information Card. This work will be done before the August Primary."