PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Monday's turnout for early voting is the highest the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections has ever seen.
"It was irritating, it was disorganized," Hallie Rider said.
Rider said this is the only was to describe her early voting experience.
"It was very difficult to cast a paper ballot. They had 22 booths, 20 of them were devoted to electronic voting," she said. "Only two booths were devoted to paper ballots."
Rider voted Monday at the Summit Library in West Palm Beach. She said long lines and limited options to vote with paper ballots frustrated her.
"They just gave up. They were like being led to the slaughter, lambs. I mean they just caved in and voted electronically," she said. "I don't think it's a Supervisor of Elections' job to minimize paper ballots."
Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory-Link said otherwise.
"Florida is a paper ballot state," she said. "Everybody who is casting a vote in Florida, it doesn't matter what county they're in, they're going to do that on a paper ballot."
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Link said there are two ways in Palm Beach County you can vote on a paper ballot. One way to vote is the traditional oval ballot and the other is express vote.
"It's a ballot marking device that uses a touch screen. So, you go and you're going to touch the races that you want and at the end, it's going to say these are the race you voted for," she said. "At the end it says, if you're satisfied with these, you punch the print button. When you push the print button, it prints out a paper ballot."
Link said the express machines have been used in the primary since 2021. She said voters still have a choice, but the express is faster, doesn't allow people to over vote, and the machine has no memory once the ballot is printed.
Rider said she's not convinced.
"I don't trust that but that's just me," she said.
All ballots are held for 22 months following an election unless there are ongoing litigation or records requests from the county or state.
