Florida begins voting with no major problems
Florida is reporting no serious problems as it begins early voting in much of the state.
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. » Floridians began early voting in much of the state Monday with no serious problems reported as the Trump campaign tries to cut into an early advantage Democrats have posted in mail-in votes in the key swing state.
Themost populous counties reported wait times of 15 minutes or less atmost of their early voting sitesMonday afternoon, although a few sites reported waits of up to 90 minutes. One Palm Beach County site reported a three-hour wait. One county had to close an early voting site after the elections supervisor and an employee tested positive for the coronavirus and another county had its website go down.
In Miami, Aldo Rodriguez, 62, lined up early and waited in heavy rain to cast his ballot for Democrat Joe Biden over PresidentDonald Trump. He said he wanted to make sure his ballot for the former vice president gets counted.
Biden “knows pretty much how the country was running and hopefully he’ll get it back the same way it was,” Rodriguez said. “No fighting against any colors or races, we are all the same. ...We shouldn’t have this bickering.”
In Orlando, some voters cast their ballots at the arena used by the NBA’s Magic, where coach Steve Clifford assisted poll workers. The NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning’s arena and the NFL’s Tampa Buccaneers stadium are also being used as early voting sites as sports teams around the country have been encouraging turn out.
“I felt like I was a player. I just had to make the right decisions,” said Anton Versch, 30, after he cast his ballot forTrump. Versch, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, said his main issue is “freedom,” particularly of speech and the right to bear arms.
“We should be able to do the most that we are allowed to do, as long as we aren’t infringing on anybody’s rights or liberties,” Versch said.
With 29 electoral votes, Florida is crucial to both candidates but especially Trump, who moved his official residence to his Palm Beach estate Mar-a-Lago from New York last year. A Florida loss would make it nearly impossible for Trump to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to retain the WhiteHouse. The state typically has close elections, most notably in 2000 when Republican GeorgeW. Bush defeated Al Gore by 537 votes after a recount.
California Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, will visit Orlando and Jacksonville on Monday to encourage herparty’s voters to cast early ballots. Trump will visit Florida on Friday after visiting last week.
Under state law, counties can offer up to two weeks of early voting and many do, including Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and other population centers. Large counties offer multiple sites and all counties allow thosewho have received mail-in ballots to drop them off. The latest a county can start early voting is Saturday. The final day is Nov. 1.
About 2.5 million mailin ballots have already been cast, with Democrats returning 1.2 million and Republicans about 758,000 as
of Monday. Non-affiliated voters and third-partymembers make up the rest. The number of mail-in votes is approaching the 2.7 million cast in 2016 when Republicans had a 70,000-votemargin on returns. Trump defeatedHillary Clinton in the state by about 113,000votes. No Republican has won the presidency without winning Florida since Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
Florida Republicans say they aren’t worried about the mail-in gap, believing any advantage Biden gets will be swamped by Trump supporters casting in-person ballots starting this week and on Election Day. They believe Democrats are “cannibalizing” their own votes — moving in-person voters to mail-in without increasing their overall support. They point to their increased voter registration, which narrowed the Democrats’ lead to 134,000, down 327,000 four years ago.
Political strategist Steve Schale, who runs the proBiden super PAC “Unite The Country,” said Monday that Democrats shouldn’t get comfortable.
“Republicans are going to get their vote out,” he said.
While Florida Republicans have historically outperformed Democrats in mail-in voting, Schale said Trump’s criticism of the practice has crippled his party’s Florida mail-in effort — even though he has praised his adopted home state’s system.