The recently-constructed Southern Recreation Center in Palm Coast has been added as an additional early voting location for the 2024 general election, according to a new announcement from the Flagler Supervisor of Elections Office. The move came as the office expects high turnout, and will seek to spread the county's voters over more locations to bring down potential wait times at the polls.
The Southern Recreation Center was finished last year, providing a host of racquet courts for tennis and pickleball players, a small cafe, fitness classes, and more amenities available for a monthly membership.
"Our county has experienced tremendous growth in the past several years," said Elections Supervisor Kaiti Lenhart in the announcement. "We have over 22,700 new registered voters in the state of Florida, specifically here in Flagler County, since the last Presidential Election in 2020. An additional early voting site is needed, as a high turnout of early voters is expected this year. We saw 28,537 early voters in 2020, a detailed breakdown of voters by location is below. Since that time, an early voting site was added in the City of Flagler Beach in 2022. This new early voting site at the Southern Recreation Center will help relieve wait times for voters at our other four locations while increasing public exposure to this new amenity in Palm Coast."
There will be fifteen reserved parking spaces for early voting at the Southern Recreation Center, in addition to whatever other parking may be available. The busiest early voting hours are expected to be between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. Tennis and pickleball players are advised to plan according to the increased crowding at the facility during early voting.
"This early voting site will be open for only two weeks during a historic election cycle," Lenhart continued. "With your patience and accommodation for the electoral process, I feel we can all work together and this can be a win for all residents and the voters of Flagler County."
Flagler County now has five early voting locations, the most it's ever had. The locations which will host early voting from October 21st to November 2nd are as follows:
