For some, early voting just isn’t early enough
Frank Cerabino
It’s still dark out, about a quarter past 5 in the morning, and all is still outside the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections headquarters except for the solitary man who is pacing the parking lot.
Richard Swartz, 87, of Lake Worth, is an early voter. A real early voter.
“I’ve already done my shopping for the day,” Swartz says.
Yes, voting wasn’t the first item on his to-do list on this Monday morning. After getting up at 4:30 a.m., he had stopped at the 24-hour Walmart to buy ginger ale and get quarters for his condo’s laundry room. And now it was time to vote.
At least it would be time, once the poll workers show up and the polls open on this first day of 14 consecutive days of early voting before the presidential election on Nov. 8.
The Supervisor of Elections office at 240 South Military Trail is one of 15 locations used for voters who would rather not wait until Election Day to cast their in-person ballots. And Swartz, whose first vote in a presidential election was for Harry Truman in 1948, prefers not to wait.
“I like doing it early,” he says. “And I’m also going on a 10-day cruise.”
As the poll workers arrive to prepare for the 7 a.m. opening, Swartz stands near the polling place entrance and turns down an offer to sit in a chair.
“I don’t sit,” the former tennis pro says.
About 20 minutes before 6 a.m., he’s joined by another voter, Karen Spivey, 53, of Royal Palm Beach. The two strangers would become