Workers at the polling stations say they were banned from using public toilets

No official from either the city government or the election body could say why public facilities were inaccessible to those distributing information to voters in city institutions.

DELRAY BEACH. The close-to-the-day presidential election has seen controversy at early voting sites in Florida and across the country.

In Delray Beach, they just want to use the bathroom.

New state laws that came into effect after the last one presidential elections included things like updating existing voter registers, restrictions on who could collect and cast ballots, restrictions on where and when drop boxes could be used, and expanding the no-vote zone at polling stations.

And in at least one early voting location, a new no-solicitation rule may have prevented those greeting voters from using a restroom at a city facility. However, on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the electoral office indicated that they should be free, but those at the site said that was not the case on Sunday.

Campaigners at the Delray Beach Community Center said they were not allowed to enter the main entrance to go to the bathroom by the elections manager manning the site. Polling station rules prohibit both voters and attorneys from wearing political party symbols within 150 feet of a polling station. But in this case, the campaigners claimed they did not wear any clothing bearing the logos or names of a political party or candidate.

Benita Goldstein, who quit her publishing and New York-based custom glass mirror business, was wearing a cream-colored shirt when she was blocked by a production floor manager on Monday, Oct. 28.

“It makes it so I can’t even stand here—where are we going?” said the Delray Beach resident. “This is a public recreation center, a public institution.”

Access to the bathroom was not previously restricted

Terri Rizzo, former chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party and Palm Beach County Democratic Party, said she has greeted voters at polling places in Palm Beach County many times with palm cards telling them who to vote for and has never been turned away in the bathroom. .

“As long as people didn’t wear/don’t wear campaign paraphernalia, I know there were no problems,” she wrote. “I remember going to the car once and turning my evening shirt inside out so I could go into the polling station and use the toilet, which was legal and not a problem.”

The law (SB 90) was passed in 2021 and then appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld it earlier this year. The law expanded the no-campaign zone around the polling station and banned what’s called “queue warming,” such as offering voters a bottle of water in line.

Frictions at polling stations are simmering across the country

It is not clear whether this law is the reason for restricting access to the bathroom. However, tensions over rules at polling stations have made national headlines.

One New Jersey woman tore off her shirt in support of former President Donald Trump and voted in her bra while shouting expletives after being asked to cover it up and remove her MAGA hat. A fight broke out at a polling station in South Carolina after police ordered a man to remove a “Let’s Go Brandon” hat before voting.

And in Florida, an 18-year-old man was arrested after brandishing a machete at a Neptune Beach polling station, according to media reports.

And closer to home, Nicholas Farley, 30, faces up to 10 years in prison on two counts of voter intimidation and voter interference after he yelled insults at a woman campaigning outside a polling place in Loxahatchee on the third the day of early voting. He was detained on October 27.

No tolerance for voter intimidation

Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Wendy Sartori Link said Thursday that voter safety is a priority and she will not tolerate any form of voter intimidation.

But people who meet with voters in Delray Beach say they are being unnecessarily limited. When their complaints surfaced late last week, Link visited the Delray Beach Community Center on Tuesday. She adjusted the boundaries that confined those handing out information to the exit side of the community center so that those meeting the polls could talk to voters as they entered. She also said that those asking for information could use the restroom at the polling station and could do so until the end of Tuesday and Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Link said Tuesday that the bathroom restrictions were caused by misinformation from city staff. However, on Thursday, the rules that limit the use of the bathroom went back into effect. A representative of the electoral body on the ground said that she was not authorized to speak to the media.

Anne and Robert Cohen, two retirees from Delray Beach, were perplexed as they stood in a designated area dominated by posters of the Democratic candidates hammered into the ground and no Trump/Vance sign in sight.

The source of the limitation is unclear

“We had a video lesson and were told we could use the bathroom,” said Robert Cohen.

Joy Howell, another person who met voters in Delray Beach, said she was also not allowed to use the bathroom on Thursday and Friday. In past years, used the community center bathroom and noted that access to the community center restroom is down the hall, in the opposite direction from where voting takes place.

Of the voting room, Howell said, “You can’t even see the voting room from the entrance” on the way to the bathroom.

Shirley Johnson, a former city commissioner, said she campaigned heavily at city polls and she had never heard of bathroom restrictions on public property.

“If I was on the commission, I would ask if we want to let them take over the site again if they’re doing that,” she said.

The press secretary of the election commission denied the information that the ban on visits to the toilet for those collecting information about the campaign came from the employees of the election commission.

“Our staff would not prevent a person from using a public restroom,” spokeswoman Alison Novoa said.

A city spokeswoman said the city has no say in the rules that are in place at the community center while voting is underway there.

Late Friday, one of the walk-in voters, Howell, said she spoke directly with Link, and Link told her she would step in to ensure walk-in voters had unrestricted bathroom access.

“Of course, we will respect the rules prohibiting campaigning at the polling station,” Howell said.

Novoa said Saturday that there shouldn’t be any more problems with bathroom access at the site, without elaborating on why the meeters had previously been blocked from accessing the city’s bathrooms.

On Sunday, the last day of early voting, voters again told The Palm Beach Post that they were barred from using a public restroom at the community center.

Palm Beach Post staff Hannah Phillips contributed to this report.

Anne Heggis is an insurance reporter at The Palm Beach Postpart of the USA TODAY Florida network. You can contact her at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.