Early voting ends Sunday for Tampa City Council District 5 special election

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TAMPA — Early voting for the Tampa City Council District 5 special election ends Sunday, Sept. 7, with Election Day set for Tuesday, Sept. 9.

Fourteen candidates are vying for the seat once held by the late Gwendolyn Henderson, who passed away this past June.

“She was a nice activist for the community and probably some big shoes will have to be filled with people that want to step up and put into place some things that are going to move East Tampa forward,” said Anthony Gilbert of East Tampa.

Thirteen candidates are listed on the ballot, and one is a write-in candidate.

District 5 spans downtown, Ybor City, East Tampa, Tampa Heights, and a small portion of West Tampa.

More than 45,000 voters are eligible to cast a ballot, but so far, Hillsborough County voter records show only about 3,000 have voted.

News Channel 8 spoke with voters such as Michelle Monroe, who said voting has been a staple for her family, “Its value is a right, and it’s something that we don’t take lightly,” she said.

Monroe noted though the number of candidates is high, it shows the level of care there is for the neighborhood.

“Let me tell you, you got to do your homework, but that just shows you the amount of people that come together that really care about the communities,” she said.

Monroe said deterring crime and the well-being of children are her priorities.

“Neighborhoods are the key issues, of course, crime, and of course, just making sure our kids are safe and feeling safe,” she said. “School right now is just the primary source and making sure our kids have a path to school, way to school, and making sure they’re feeling safe on the way to school.”

Gilbert told 8 On Your Side he was born and raised in East Tampa and has seen years of neglect.

“When it comes to recreational use, when it comes to fixing the roads and the streets and the safety concerns and just everything about East Tampa district five has just been neglected over the years,” Gilbert said.

He added that the lack of options leaves the youth with few positive choices.

“They have nothing to look up to. They have nothing to be proud of. They have nothing to say, ‘Hey, we got a park over here. Hey, we got a pool over here,” Gilbert said. “There’s nothing to do, and that makes them try to find other things to do recreational-wise, which might be, you know, trouble,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said it will be worthwhile for the district to have a candidate who is from the district itself.

“You can know how long this has been missing, how long that’s been missing,” he said. “You can tell what’s been neglected because you’ve seen it over the years.”

Gilbert also stressed the impact of local elections and the need for a greater turnout, specifically from the Black population of the district.

“These small elections is what dedicates the dollars that we’re getting here to help us, you know, help fix the roads, help start programs, help kids stay out of trouble,” he said. “We’ll turn out to go to a football game, but we won’t turn out to vote and we really have to change that because the Black vote does matter,” he said.

According to voter records, nearly 20,000 Black people are eligible to vote in the district, which is greater than any other race or ethnicity across the district.

Both Democrats and Republicans say they are concerned about low turnout in this off-year election.

With so many candidates in the race, officials say they expect the contest will likely head to a runoff next month.

Eligible voters may cast their ballot early at any of the four polling sites listed below: