During a Jan. 26 meeting, the Alachua City Commission unanimously voted to close Precinct 53 at the Cleather Hathcock Community Center ahead of the April 14 municipal election.
The commission cited planned construction at the community center during the election as the reason behind the closure, though a start date for the project has not been released. The city of Alachua didn’t respond to phone calls requesting details on the project.
The decision has drawn criticism from the Alachua County Democratic Party and from residents, who are now accusing the commission of creating a barrier to voting for a targeted group of people. According to demographic data from the Alachua County supervisor of elections, the precinct serves a majority non-white population.
In last year’s April election, only about one-third of the people who voted at the Hathcock Center were white. By comparison, at the city’s other two polling locations, voters were 74% and 88% white. The Hathcock location also serves a smaller population — welcoming about 280 total voters, a little over half the amount of the other two precincts.
Faith Collins, a Precinct 53 voter, found out about the closure while watching the city commission meeting.
“It suppresses voting access, and it seems unnecessary at this time,” she said. “There’s been no opportunity for public, real conversation about it.”
Several local political organizations and residents said the closure will make voting more difficult for some residents.
Precinct 53 voters must now vote at the Legacy Park Multipurpose Center in Precinct 3. The new location is about 2.3 miles from the Hathcock Center, a roughly 37-minute walk, according to Google Maps. The other city polling site, Turkey Creek, is located inside a gated community.
There are no bus routes between the Hathcock Center and Legacy Park areas.
On Jan. 27, the Alachua County Democratic Party issued a press release accusing the commission of “shutter[ing] a vital precinct in a Black neighborhood.”
The statement listed three demands for the city: a suitable replacement voting location for the Hathcock Center, an explanation for why voting could not continue at the community center and funding to notify voters of the change.
One commissioner is already backtracking his support of the closure. The day after City Commissioner Jacob Fletcher voted to close the precinct, he wrote in a Facebook post that he was wrong to do so.
He wrote he voted yes under the belief he had a legal obligation to ensure the election went through. But he later realized there was no deadline for the decision to be made.
“The ‘urgency’ to close the Cleather Hathcock Center (Precinct 53) without public discussion was manufactured, not mandated,” he wrote. “I now realize I was rushed into a decision that did not need to be made in the dark.”
He requested the city manager provide a confirmed start date for construction, documentation that closer alternative voting locations were formally evaluated and a plan to make sure all voters have the opportunity to vote.
Dayna Williams’ city commission seat is up for election in the April 14 vote. Williams has held the position since 2018, winning three back-to-back three-year terms. In its press release, the Alachua County Democratic Party accused the commission of “shield[ing] incumbent Dayna Williams from the accountability of her constituents” by closing Precinct 53.
Tyler Forest, chair of the Alachua County Democratic Party, said the closure disenfranchises voters. He believes it will have a big impact on the results of the election, he said.
Alachua is a small city, located west of Gainesville, with a population of just 10,600, compared to Gainesville’s 145,800 residents. In the city of Alachua’s April 2025 mayoral race, the winner prevailed by just 21 votes.
“It is highly likely that closing that precinct would at least deter 21 voters,” Forest said. “This would have flipped the last election, in my opinion.”
Forest said an election warrants a slight delay in construction plans for the Hathcock Center, even if construction is planned to start before the election.
“This was a deliberate act clearly calculated to protect their incumbent,” he said. “Because they are scared to death that the good ole boy network that runs Alachua is coming to an end.”
Jean Calderwood, a former mayor and city commissioner for Alachua, also criticized the move.
“People that would typically walk to the Hathcock Center would find it very difficult to walk from their neighborhood over to the Legacy building,” she said. “It’s an absolute inconvenience for the people that live in those neighborhoods that vote at the Hathcock Center.”
Bobby Mermer, coordinator of the Alachua County Labor Coalition, said he has similar concerns about the impact the closure of the Hathcock Center will have on the election.
“I think it’s going to result in lower turnout and election results skewed toward the wealthier population of the city of Alachua,” he said. “If it’s harder for some people to vote rather than others, that's not a fair society.”
Mermer said he would like the commission to reconsider the closure or delay construction until after the election.
The Alachua City Commission didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment through phone calls.
Contact Alexa Ryan at aryan@alligator.org. Follow her on X @AlexaRyan_.
Alexa is a second-year journalism and international studies student and The Alligator's Spring 2026 Enterprise Politics Reporter. She previously served as the Fall 2025 Criminal Justice Reporter. In her free time, she enjoys running, traveling and going on random side quests.
