Florida Democrat Party Leader Whines Over Chick-fil-A Voter Registration Drive Event

An upcoming voter registration drive event held by the Supervisor of Elections for Pinellas County in central Florida is catching a lot of flack from Democrat groups and the head of the Democratic party of Pinellas Country.

Supervisor of Elections for Pinellas County Deborah Clarke is coming under fire for holding nine voter registration drives at various Chick-fil-A locations around Pinellas County. Susan McGrath, head of the Democratic party of Pinellas Country and also the leader of the Stonewall Democrats, sees this move by Clarke as partisan. McGrath compared Clarke’s voter registration to the Democratic Supervisor of Elections holding a voter registration drive at Planned Parenthood. Highlighting the lack of transparency on the part of Clarke, McGrath pointed out that she [Clarke] would have been more transparent if she held the voter registration drive at the Republican Party Headquarters.

McGrath pointed out that earlier this month, Clarke refused to open up satellite offices for early voting in certain areas of St Petersburg south of Central Avenue that have high numbers of black voters. The opening of these offices would have improved voter registration among black Americans in Pinellas County. McGrath sees the Chick-fil-A voter registration event as a way to register higher numbers of Republican voters because they represent a large number of Chick-fil-A’s consumer base.

The Tampa Bay Times went on to report that McGrath wrote to Clarke and said, “While some Democrats may occasionally dine at Chick-fil-A (and perhaps even members of the LGBT community), the coordination of Pinellas voter registration activities with this right-leaning business very clearly conveys that your office is targeting Republican-leaning voters.” Chic-fil-A is well known for their strong Conservative Christian values and even for putting their values before profits.

A spokesman for Deborah Clarke, Jason Latimer, told the Tampa Bay Times, “the office will hold 350 voter drives this year.” He declined to comment on McGrath’s allegations, but he did say the restaurants draw lots of customers.