WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — More than eight million Floridians have already cast their ballot, either voting by mail or voting early. That’s nearly 60% of all registered voters in the state. Many more of you will head to the polls tomorrow.
Tonight, we’re asking the people responsible for tallying up the votes, exactly how they’re keeping security.
Margie Tamblyn voted early.
“I'm excited to vote,” said Tamblyn. “This is a very consequential election.”
She’s a part of the 66% of Martin County voters who’ve already voted. That’s the highest percentage of all five counties. In St. Lucie County, about 60% have voted, in Okeechobee County about 50% and Indian River County, 62% have voted.
In Palm Beach County, 64% of registered voters have already submitted their ballots.
“We haven’t had long lines to speak of,” Martin County Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis said. “I’m sure we will have some lines first thing on Election morning.”
Davis said she’s expecting 20,000 voters to hit the polls in-person Tuesday.
“Everything has gone very, very smoothly,” said Davis. “We're not expecting any issues or incidents tomorrow, but you never know. So everyone at the sheriff's department is on high alert.”
I checked in with all five elections offices, who said voters can expect deputies patrolling at polling location. In some cases, deputies will be in unmarked patrol cars. Physical security aside, she said there are “guardrails” to keep the election and its security on track.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: AMERICA VOTES 2024
“In the state of Florida, we are required to pretest every piece of equipment to make sure that it is tabulating properly,” said Davis. "After the election, we are required by Florida law to hand count a precinct all the way through from vote by mail ballots to early voting ballots to Election Day ballots to make sure that they all tabulate out correctly. In addition to that, in Martin County, we have a separate system that every ballot goes back through or goes through and they're imaged and tabulated at the same time, so that we can compare those numbers to make sure that the election was secure and fair and impartial."
Davis said the ballot room is locked and under close watch. She said voters should have confidence in the system.
“There are a lot of what they call guardrails in place,” said Davis. “Voters should feel confident that when their votes are cast they are going to count.”
Voters are putting trust in those guardrails to keep the election fair.
“Always have, always will,” said early voter Jim Dragseth. “This is the United States.”
“There's people that work very, very, very hard to make sure this process is clear and thorough, as thorough as possible,” said Tamblyn.
