When I first took office as the Lee County Supervisor of Elections in 2017, the population was around 724,000, and we had more than 400,000 registered voters. Since then, Lee County has seen tremendous growth, and our voter rolls have expanded as well, with an additional 100,000 voters. Lee Elections now serves over 500,000 constituents!
To better accommodate the growing number of voters, Lee Elections has expanded its election services to include Lehigh Acres. This expansion ensures that the community has access to the necessary resources for participating in elections. This branch will serve as an early voting site beginning in 2024.
The grand opening for the Lee County Supervisor of Elections Lehigh Branch Office was held on March 31. I appreciate everyone who took the time to attend this special event! The ribbon-cutting ceremony was truly a memorable experience. If you want to relive the moment, you can visit youtube.com to watch the recording.
Our Community Education Services Department (CESD) has been active in the community, ensuring registered voters and those eligible to register to vote are well-informed and prepared for next year’s elections. Our outreach team strives to provide excellent customer service to the citizens of Lee County through various non-partisan services that include: voter registration drives, voter education presentations, student government elections, and straw polls.
We recently concluded our annual High School Voter Registration Challenge and Arts Vote Contest, which helps us engage with the youth of Lee County and educate them about the importance of voter participation. My team and I are thrilled to see these initiatives in action and enjoy the opportunity to display the student’s fantastic artwork in our offices.
Next year, we have three elections scheduled, starting with the Presidential Preference Primary in March 2024. Our office has been actively planning and preparing for the 2024 election cycle since the end of 2022 to ensure that everything runs smoothly and in accordance with federal and state laws. We’re committed to giving every eligible citizen the opportunity to vote, and we’re taking a number of steps to make sure that happens.
Our team is diligently preparing for the upcoming election while simultaneously balancing a variety of other important responsibilities. Among our priorities are the registration of new voters, ensuring accurate voter records, processing vote-by-mail requests, engaging with voters via social media, producing training manuals for poll workers, maintaining our warehouse inventory, ensuring the proper function of voting machines, and collaborating with schools, libraries, summer camps, and other community organizations to promote voter education and registration initiatives. Should you require additional information regarding our efforts, please do not hesitate to contact us.
It’s never too early to start preparing for next year’s elections. By law, everyone’s vote-by-mail requests expired at the end of 2022, so I strongly encourage you to request yours for 2024 as soon as possible. View it as an insurance policy in the event of a major hurricane or other unexpected circumstances that could prevent you from voting in person.
Stay connected with Lee Elections by following us on social media to stay informed and updated on all things elections.
Tommy Doyle is the Lee County Supervisor of Elections. For more information, visit lee.vote.
