Polls Open 7 a.m. Tuesday in Pinellas, and This Time You Have to Vote at Your Own Precinct

Polls across Pinellas County open at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18, and close at 7 p.m., and unlike the nine days of early voting that ended Sunday, you can only vote at the one polling place assigned to your address. Show up at the wrong precinct and you will be sent somewhere else, which is the single most common way local voters lose an hour on Election Day. The Supervisor of Elections' Find Your Precinct tool lists your polling place and your precinct-specific sample ballot.

A large share of the county has already voted. As of about 11 a.m. Thursday, 86,454 ballots had been cast, or 14.28% of the county's 605,325 active eligible voters. Nearly all of that came by mail: 81,451 mail ballots against 5,003 in-person early votes. The office mailed out more than 190,000 ballots for this election.

The party split ran in opposite directions. Republicans cast about 53% of the early in-person ballots, while Democrats led the mail returns 33,737 to 32,518. Overall, the two parties were separated by 316 ballots. Another 14,209 ballots came from voters with no party affiliation.

No party affiliation? You still have races to vote on

Florida runs closed primaries, so only registered Republicans and Democrats can vote in their party's contests. But the Supervisor of Elections has designated three local races as universal primary contests, meaning every registered voter who lives in the district may vote in them: State Senator District 16, State Representative District 62 and County Commissioner District 4. That happens when every qualified candidate shares one party and no write-in has qualified. The winner takes the seat Tuesday, and the race never appears on the November ballot.

Nonpartisan contests are open to all voters too: three school board seats, County Judge Group 10, and municipal races where they apply. School board Districts 2 and 3 are at-large, so every county voter gets them. District 6 is a single-member seat covering the Pinellas Park and Seminole area and parts of south-central Pinellas.

Contest	Who votes
County Commission District 4 (Dave Eggers, Anthony Ringelspaugh)	All voters in District 4
State Senate District 16 (Fentrice Driskell, Michele K. Rayner)	All voters in the district
State House District 62 (Kyandra Darling, Wengay "Newt" Newton)	All voters in the district
School Board Districts 2, 3 and 6	All voters (D6 by district)
County Judge Group 10	All voters
Congress District 13 (Leela Gray, John William Liccione, Brandt Robinson)	Registered Democrats

Republicans and Democrats also have primaries for U.S. Senator, Governor and Lieutenant Governor, Chief Financial Officer and Commissioner of Agriculture. Some Pinellas precincts sit in Congressional District 16, which has primaries on both party ballots.

The St. Petersburg mayor's race is on this ballot

St. Petersburg voters, regardless of party, decide a six-candidate mayoral field Tuesday that includes incumbent Ken Welch and former Gov. Charlie Crist. If nobody clears 50%, the top two advance to a runoff on Nov. 3, according to local news reports.

Still holding a mail ballot

Do not mail it. A postmark means nothing at this point. Mail ballots have to be in the hands of the Supervisor of Elections by 7 p.m. Tuesday at one of the three offices in Clearwater, St. Petersburg or Largo, which accept returns from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day. Drive-thru return is available at the front entrance of the Starkey Lakes Corporate Center, 13001 Starkey Road in Largo. The secure ballot return locations used during early voting closed Sunday.

If your signature does not match or is missing, your ballot can still count. The deadline to submit a cure affidavit for a mail or provisional ballot is 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20, and that is also the deadline for anyone who cast a provisional ballot to prove eligibility to the Canvassing Board. Voters can check the status of a returned mail ballot through the Supervisor of Elections office at 727-464-VOTE.

When results land

The Canvassing Board convenes at 5 p.m. Tuesday to finish canvassing mail ballots, process Election Day results and release unofficial returns, which do not include provisional ballots. The board meets at the Election Service Center, 13001 Starkey Road in Largo, and its members are Judges Edwin Jagger and Joseph Lawhorne, Supervisor of Elections Julie Marcus, George Cretekos and Lesley Demuth.

Canvassing of mail and provisional ballots continues Wednesday and Thursday. Unofficial returns are due to the state by 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 21, the same day the board certifies official returns, with official returns filed with the state by Aug. 26. If a recount is ordered, the board starts that work at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Everything not settled outright Tuesday goes to the general election on Nov. 3.

Full ballot details, sample ballots and polling place lookup are on the Supervisor of Elections' primary election page.

For more from around the county, visit Pinellas County Community Website and follow us on Facebook. Voting Tuesday? Tell us what your precinct looked like and join the conversation in our Community Forum. You can also read more government and politics stories and local news from Pinellas County.