POLK COUNTY, Fla. - Politics and the coronavirus don’t really mix. Since Florida and two other states participated in their presidential primary election on March 17, more than a dozen states postponed their primary elections until later this spring.

And there’s only been a couple of other statewide and municipal elections around the country in that time, according to David Beaudoin, the news editor with Ballotpedia.

But that changed on Tuesday with Wisconsin voters participating in their presidential primary (against the wishes of their governor), and six cities in Polk County went to the polls to vote for city commissioners and in some cities, charter amendments.

Polk County Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards told Spectrum Bay News 9 that there was surprisingly little controversy about holding the election during the middle of a pandemic, but did hear from officials in Tallahassee Monday night.

“At the very last minute, I heard that our legislative delegation had some concerns about holding the election,” she said. “That occurred last night after business hours, but it didn’t affect our operation.”

There were eight precincts open in the six cities that held elections (Bartow, Lake Wales, Lake Hamilton,  Haines City, Davenport and Mulberry).

Bartow City Commissioner Trish Pfeiffer set up shop in the parking lot of the Bartow Civic Center early on Election Day, and was there all day greeting voters. Pfeiffer was first elected in 2014 and reelected in 2017.  

She said she was worried that the election might be postponed last week after Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a statewide ‘stay-at-home’ executive order, but in fact elections were listed as essential activities. 

“Typically, a municipal election here has been about 1,600 voters total, which is sad with a registration base of 11,000 voters,” she said.  “I think the mail-in (ballots) are going to be a lot greater this year of course, but then again, people are saying it’s a great way to get out of the house from the ‘staycation.’ So, it’s just going to be a mixed bag with this election.”

Though the turnout may ultimately be slimmer than usual in such elections because of the virus, Spectrum Bay News 9 saw more than a dozen voters go to the polls while observing for about a half-hour on the Bartow Civic Center.

“They only limited certain amount of people in there,” Bartow resident Brandy Parker said after voting. “We weren’t (physically) close. I mean, it was easy. Safe and easy.”

“As long as I keep my distance from people and don’t touch anybody, I’m okay with it,” said Bartow resident Alan Williamson in describing his attitude about entering the polling location. “I don’t like going into stores. Because there’s a lot of touching going on in stores, so I wear rubber gloves and sometimes a mask going into a store.”

Of the more than a dozen voters we saw at the Bartow polling location, there was a mixture of people wearing masks and those who weren’t. 

In this extremely usual time, politics and elections still continue, albeit in a very different, socially distanced type of way. Several political analysts believe that will favor incumbent candidates all year long, since it will be harder than ever for less known challengers to campaign in traditional ways. 

Pfeiffer agrees.

“I’ve been an extremely active commissioner. This is a full-time job for me,” she said. “It’s not part-time in anyway, and so I’m out there every day for the people and the businesses for Bartow. Hoping to do that another three years. Who knows? The future of our city is really at a crossroads.”

There are more municipal elections scheduled to take place in the Tampa Bay area next week in Pasco County, though Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley has asked Gov. DeSantis to have that election postponed until August.