First-Time Florida Voters Share Their Stories From The Polls

FLORIDA — Some Floridians headed to the polls for the first time this year for numerous reasons. In some cases, they just turned 18 and were eager to cast their ballot. Others are returning citizens with their voting rights restored thanks to the passage of Amendment 4. And still others were simply struck with the inspiration to have their say in this year’s contest. Here are some of their stories.

Cynthia Muscat, St. Petersburg

Forty-two-year-old Cynthia Muscat, a St. Petersburg resident, doesn’t like to talk about what landed her in prison.

“It’s kind of embarrassing,” she said.

But she spent two years behind bars, from 2008 to 2010, on a felony charge. When she got out, she lived briefly in a Salvation Army center trying to land on her feet. She was so focused on rebuilding her life that she didn’t think much, at first, about the fact that her voting rights had been taken away because of her felony record.

“I knew right then and there I couldn’t vote after I became a felon,” Muscat said. “At that point, it didn’t really bother me because I wasn’t really into politics.”

She began paying more attention leading up to the 2016 presidential election, though. She was drawn to Sen. Bernie Sanders, then running for president.

“I was watching and listening to him and realized, 'Wow, he’s really for the people,'” she said.

Muscat read everything she could about Sanders and the political climate.

“I’m on Facebook, and everybody is posting articles, I’m reading them all, everything about [President Donald] Trump, and it started driving me crazy knowing I couldn’t vote,” she said.

Then, in 2018, two-thirds of Florida voters approved Amendment 4. This constitutional amendment restored the right to vote for people with prior nonviolent felony convictions.

“I was so excited,” Muscat said. “Felons have their rights in other states. Why couldn’t we have rights in Florida?”

She was upset when the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature added a stipulation to restored voting rights: All individuals must first pay their outstanding fines and fees before they are eligible to register to vote.

“If you did your time, (the fees) shouldn’t matter,” she said. “If they were gonna do that, take your vote away, they should put everybody on probation until they paid off their dues.”

Muscat was caught up on her fees, though, so this didn’t affect her. So, she looked forward to voting in the 2020 presidential election and had several issues on her mind.

Among them was the Trump administration’s immigration policies, she said. In recent years, she saw two people close to her — a friend and her ex-father-in-law — deported. This fired her up even more to hit the polls on Election Day.

“I felt like this is not the America that I know,” Muscat said. “If you’re here, you’re here. If you’re paying taxes like that, like my father-in-law was, you deserve to be here.”

She decided to vote early at the downtown St. Petersburg Judicial Building, catching a ride to the polls through U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist’s campaign. The site was active with poll volunteers and campaigners when she was there.

“On one corner you had the Trump supporters, on the other you had (Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s) supporters,” she said. “There was a lot going on.”

There was no line entering the building, “but the room itself was packed,” Muscat said. Still, she was “in and out.”

She added, “It felt great. It felt great to vote. I hadn’t voted since I was like 19, probably 20, and that was just a governor’s race.”

Even then, she said, she lived with her father, “a die-hard Republican” who told her she had to vote for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Not knowing better, she did what he told her to do. But it’s different now, she said.

“Social media has definitely changed my political stance,” she said. “I grew up where you didn’t talk about it. You never talked about politics and religion. Now it’s all everyone talks about … and we have the right to vote and to make a choice. And we should use our vote. Our votes do count. The electoral votes might suck, but we at least need to step up and do our part as citizens.”

Shaquille O’Neal, Orange County

Basketball star, entertainer and entrepreneur Shaquille O’Neal, 48, shared on his new podcast, “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” that he voted for the first time this year, according to CNBC.

On his podcast, the NBA Hall of Famer said he cast an early absentee ballot in the presidential race, but didn’t say whom he voted for. O’Neal reportedly has multiple properties in Florida and, according to VoterRecords.com, he’s registered to vote in Orange County.

He worked to help several local officials get elected, including John Mina in the Orange County sheriff’s race. He also partnered with When We All Vote, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to encouraging people to register to vote — and then vote.

This work inspired O’Neal to reconsider his own voting habits, he said. ″[N]ow I’m doing all these voting campaigns, and you know one thing I never like to do is be a hypocrite.”

He acknowledged he might get “roasted” for admitting this, but more importantly, it “feels good” to vote.

Brianna Davis, Sarasota

Knowing she would turn 18 in October, Brianna Davis, a high school senior in Sarasota, registered to vote over the summer. She’d been interested in politics since Trump won the 2016 election, and she knew she wanted to head to the polls as soon as she was legally eligible to do so.

“I’ve had it in my head since then that I was going to vote (this year),” she said. “For me, personally, being a Black person, it’s very important to vote. I’m a Black woman, and my people had to march and literally fight for us to vote. They did a lot for me to be able to vote, so I have to vote.”

She added, “A lot is on the line this year. It’s important to me.”

Davis received a mail-in ballot and dropped it off ahead of Election Day at Sarasota’s downtown Supervisor of Elections Office.

“It was easy,” she said, “and I didn’t want to wait to the last minute. I wanted to go get my vote in.”

She’s a political junkie who avidly follows the news, she said. She’s also known for being upfront about her opinions. She’s hopeful Biden will win the presidential race.

“I’m very vocal, so my voting is me showing I’m serious about how I’m feeling,” Davis said. “It’s been a very long, tough election, but it’s been great … hopefully in January, Trump will be packing up.”

James Kinlaw, Orlando area

Now living in the Orlando area to attend school, James Kinlaw, 30, only registered to vote for the first time in June, after he encountered canvassers from the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition at Lake Eola Park.

Originally from Palatka in northern Florida’s Putnam County, he spent much of his adult life in and out of prison. He was first arrested on armed robbery charges when he was 18.

“It’s been a very harsh, long trip,” said Kinlaw, who is “ready to live a normal life.”

He added, “I don’t want to die in prison.”

Kinlaw hadn’t thought much about his voting rights until he became involved with the FRRC over the summer. In fact, he wasn’t fully aware that his voting rights had been taken away due to his felony charges, since he had never voted before.

“A lot of people don’t know this. They never really tell you this stuff in court,” he said. “They don’t tell you that you can’t vote.”

After registering to vote, he volunteered with FRRC for several weeks. He’s now employed by the organization as a canvasser who works with returning citizens to get them registered to vote. Now, it’s his own personal mission.

“As long as they’re doing this work, I want to be doing it,” he said.

Kinlaw voted for the first time in August’s primary election. He was interested mostly in the Orange County property appraiser’s race, backing Monique Worrell, who went on to win in the general election.

He sat out the Nov. 3 general election, though, worried that he wasn’t informed enough about either presidential candidate or the issues.

“I didn’t really like the options,” he said, “and I didn’t have time to do my homework.”

Still, voting in the primaries “felt good,” he said. And though he “[tries] not to regret anything in life,” he’s hopeful that next time he’ll be able to do the research so he can vote in the general election.

As Kinlaw watched the news on election night, he “saw it was real close,” he said. “I kept telling myself I should make the time to read up on everyone …. I’m going to be prepared the right way for the next election.”

He’s also a firm believer that the local races have the most impact on day-to-day life.

“The county commission, judges, people running right here local in the city is the way to go if you want to see change,” he said.

He also wants to remind voters that their opinions matter.

“One thing I want to stress is all our votes matter,” Kinlaw said. “It is worth researching who’s running for what and choosing what is best for our county and our country. Use your vote and exercise it. I will be the next time around.”

Janie Chatham, Bradenton

Knowing she would turn 18 on Oct. 23, less than two weeks from the general election, Janie Chatham, a senior at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School in Bradenton, began planning early. Not only did she register over the summer, but she began doing her research months in advance.

“I wanted to take control and form my own opinions,” she said. “I read all the news on the issues and weighed the pros and cons for every candidate.”

Chatham felt she was granted a privilege and wanted to take it seriously.

“I was excited to be able to vote. It’s such a privilege and honor in America,” she said. “I was excited to be part of it this year, but I also wanted to do it justice.”

She waited to vote in person on Election Day in Bradenton with her mother. Chatham was “surprised by how controlled and calm the voting process was” at her precinct.

They only had to wait about 10 minutes to vote, she said. And as they waited, everyone in line was “polite, pleasant and making small talk.”

She added, “I was ready to vote and excited to vote. It was such a calm and pleasant experience. I thought it would be more heated than that with the controversies of this election.”

At the end of the day, Chatham hopes the country can come together once the winner of the presidential election is determined.

“I’m hoping whoever gets elected has the best interest of Americans in mind for the next four years,” she said. “The president needs to care about all American citizens, and we could use some unity.”

Maddie Butler, Safety Harbor

Growing up in a fundamentalist environment, it took Maddie Butler, 24, of Safety Harbor time to find herself politically.

“I’m not really that way at all,” she said. “A piece of me was trying to deconstruct what was told to me when I was younger and find out what I really believe in and what I think about the world.”

While growing up in Pasco County, Butler always held different views from her parents. But she didn’t have the confidence to challenge what they told her.

“I feel they kind of spew certain things at you when you’re younger and you don’t have a chance to know how you feel about it before you fly the coop,” Butler said.

For that reason, this year was the first time she’s voted in an election.

“The reason that I’ve decided to vote this year, I was just really thinking about my rights and the women in the past who have fought for me to be able to take part in the election in general, and I wasn’t really taking advantage of that before,” she said.

Also, Butler, who doesn’t identify with either the Democratic or Republican parties, often felt left out of the political conversation.

“I always felt like I was somebody in between,” she said.

This year, though, she found her voice.

“I feel like I’ve kind of just been finding myself and finding out what I really think about these specific issues,” Butler said. “So, this year, I finally feel like I have a place, and I know what I want to fight for. That’s why this is my first election.”

Julianna Raymond, St. Petersburg

Julianna Raymond was a middle school student in 2016 when Trump first ran for president. She recalls asking her mother about politics and would listen patiently to the answers.

But she was drawn to Sanders, who was also a candidate that year, and convinced her junior high newspaper that not only should they let her serve as its political editor, but also that they should attend and cover a Sanders rally in St. Petersburg.

“I thought, 'We’ll see what happens; I’ll write about it, and that will really introduce myself to politics,'” the 19-year-old said.

Though Sanders didn’t get the Democratic nomination that year, Raymond continued to watch the election with interest as Trump competed against Hillary Clinton in the general election.

“It kind of got me thinking about what’s really going on out there, what are the major issues,” she said. “At the time, I wasn’t as politically involved as I should have been. But since then, I’ve put myself in the mix and formulated my own ideas, seeing what mattered to me and finding the candidates that talked about what I cared about.”

She’s continued a path toward journalism, serving as copy editor and managing editor of Lakewood High School’s news network. She continues to study journalism at St. Petersburg College.

Raymond voted for the first time in the 2020 general election. She always knew she’d vote as soon as she was old enough and is hoping for change this year.

“Someone needs to step up. I think the younger generation is not being represented by certain people in office at the moment,” she said. “Women’s rights need to be out there and more prevailing, LGBT rights, my community, we need to have more representation, someone there for us. Definitely Black lives they do 100 percent matter. … It’s not about other people’s lives. All lives can’t matter until Black lives do. We need somebody who recognizes that and sort of puts that at the forefront of what’s going on and their decisions."

She and her partner dropped off their mail-in ballots at a ballot box at the Clearwater Pinellas County Tax Collector’s Office with little fanfare. They just walked up and dropped their ballots in the box.

“I was worried about it being stuck in the mail and lost, and for me, seeing it going into the box was reassuring,” Raymond said.

She’s hopeful, though not without anxiety.

“I want the person I voted for to succeed, and I think they will. I am pretty worried, however, because of the rumors of the last election with … hacking,” she said. “But I really hope that my generation and my peers and all of the other first-time voters voted. I don’t want to know who they voted for; I just want them to vote.”