Three Days Left: Lakeland's Two Early Voting Sites Close Saturday at 6 p.m.

Early voting for the Aug. 18 primary ends at 6 p.m. Saturday, leaving Lakeland voters three days to cast a ballot at either of the city's two sites: the Polk County Government Center at 930 E. Parker St. and the Simpson Park Community Center at 1725 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. Both are open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Aug. 15. On the ballot are three Polk County School Board seats and a county commission seat that will be settled this month, not in November.

The convenience ends Saturday. During early voting, any Polk County voter can use any of the county's 10 sites. On Election Day, you have to go to your own assigned precinct, and polls run 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Bring a valid photo-and-signature ID. Your voter information card is handy, but it does not count as ID.

Yes, you have a ballot. Even if you're NPA.

Florida runs closed primaries, so only registered Republicans vote in Republican contests and only Democrats vote in Democratic ones. That has trained a lot of people to skip August. It's the wrong instinct this year.

Nearly 25% of Polk voters are registered with no party affiliation, and every one of them can vote in the nonpartisan and universal primary races. School board contests are nonpartisan. And the District 2 county commission race is a universal primary, meaning only one party fielded candidates and the winner faces no November opposition, so the law opens it to every voter regardless of registration.

The school board piece catches people off guard. Board members have to live in the district they represent, but they are elected countywide. A voter in north Lakeland votes in all three contested races, same as a voter in Frostproof.

Race	On the ballot
School Board Dist. 3	Sarah Corona, Victor Sims, Kate Wallace (incumbent)
School Board Dist. 5	Kay Fields (incumbent), Sam Neelam
School Board Dist. 6	Kasen Hampton, Justin Sharpless (incumbent)
County Comm. Dist. 2	Rick Wilson (incumbent), Kelly Quinn
10th Circuit judge (two seats)	Lakeisha Latoya Babers vs. Chris P. Spath; Andrea DeMichael vs. Candice Dixon

The races with real stakes in August

Wallace was appointed to the District 3 seat by Gov. Ron DeSantis in November 2025 and is running for the first time. District 3 covers schools in south Lakeland along with Bartow, Mulberry, Winter Haven, Wahneta and Alturas.

In District 5, Fields has served on the board since 2002. The 2023 state law capping school board service at two terms applies going forward, and because her first term predates it she is eligible for one more. District 7 incumbent Lisa Miller drew no challenger and was reelected by default, so that seat never reaches a ballot.

County Commission District 2 represents southern Polk, including parts of Mulberry, Bartow, Lake Wales, Fort Meade and Frostproof. Commissioners are also elected countywide, which is why a Lakeland ballot includes it. Wilson and Quinn are both Republicans, and whoever wins Aug. 18 takes the seat.

The two circuit judge races are for open seats on the 10th Judicial Circuit bench, which covers Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties. Six other circuit judges and all three county judges up this cycle were unopposed and will not appear on any ballot.

What isn't on your ballot

None of the state or federal seats representing Lakeland have a primary this year. State House Districts 49, 50 and 51, Senate District 12 and U.S. House District 18 each drew a single qualifier per party, so those decisions wait for the Nov. 3 general election. Statewide, governor, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner primaries appear on the Republican and Democratic ballots.

If you requested a mail ballot, it has to be in the Supervisor of Elections' hands by 7 p.m. on Aug. 18. Postmarks don't count. You can drop a voted mail ballot at any early voting site through Saturday, or at the Bartow headquarters or the Winter Haven operations center on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. The deadline to request a new mail ballot has already passed.

One outcome to watch: District 3 has three candidates, and under Florida law a nonpartisan race with more than two candidates only ends in August if someone clears 50%. If nobody does, the top two go to November. The other races are decided Tuesday night. Sites, sample ballots and precinct lookup are posted at polkelections.gov.

More local coverage is at Lakeland Community Website, and if you voted early this week we'd like to hear how long the line was. Join the conversation in our Community Forum, and read more government and politics stories or catch up on Polk County schools coverage.

Header photo: Photo: Airam Dato-on (Pexels)