To be perfectly honest, the only two things Julie Marcus has going against her are the guy who appointed her (Ron DeSantis) and her party affiliation (Republican). So while we’ll almost always lean towards a Democrat (there were some exceptions in CL’s 2020 voting guide) and are doing so in this race, know that there aren’t many negative things to say about Marcus’ handling of local elections. Her opponent, Dan Helm, has the same basic complaint about Marcus that we do: a lack of early voting sites. There are just five such sites in Pinellas. Hillsborough, while larger, has 26; Duval County, which has a similar population to Pinellas, has 19. There should’ve been more sites locally, especially when more people than ever are lining up to cast a ballot.
See all of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s 2020 recommendations here.
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This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2020.