U.S. polling station video does not prove voter suppression

The claim

A viral video posted on X (archived here) claims that a U.S. polling station was closed on election day, indicating voter suppression.

In the video, a man walks up to the entrance of what is supposedly a polling station and finds a sign that says, "This location is NOT an Election Date voting site." 

"Came out to vote this morning, and my voting station closed down, and the phone number that they give you to call doesn't even work," the person in the video says. "How convenient is that? There's some shit going on here."

The video was posted to X on November 5, the day of the U.S. election, and gained more than 172,000 views in less than 24 hours. It originally appeared on TikTok (archived here) and received 22,000 views. 

In fact

The sign shown in the video includes the link to a website belonging to Hillsborough County in Florida.

A closer look at the video reveals the number 8916 and the letters NORTH T_MPA BRAN on the doors of the building. Searching for this led us to the North Tampa Branch Library at 8916 N Blvd in Tampa, Florida.

Photos of the library's entrance, uploaded to Google Maps, match the viral video, further confirming the video's location.

Source: X/Google Maps user photos/Modified by Logically Facts

In response to the video, Craig Latimer, the elections supervisor in Hillsborough County, wrote on X that the North Tampa Library is an early voting site and not an election day site. 

A list of election day polling places posted to Hillsborough County's voting website supports this. The library is not included in the list.

The verdict

County records demonstrate that the building shown in the video was not a polling place on election day 2024. Therefore, we have rated this claim as false.

Follow Logically Facts' coverage and fact-checking of the U.S. Election 2024 here.