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It's An 'Eerily Quiet' Election Day, Secretary Of State Says

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 4, 2008

3:49 p.m.: "It's been somewhat eerily quiet -- and that's a good thing," Secretary of State Browning told reporters during a 3 p.m. briefing.

If Election Day was going to devolve into chaos, Browning said, we likely would know that by now. He characterized turnout statewide as "between medium and heavy," and so far not indicating a need to extend voting hours.

Scattered reports across the state indicate that some ballot scanners are malfunctioning. By and large, poll workers are placing those ballots into "emergency bins" for scanning later.

That's normal procedure, Browning said. The disadvantage is that those voters will not have "overvote protection" -- that is, the chance to correct their ballot if the machine indicates that more than one vote was cast in a race.

Voting lines have been slow at the University of South Florida, Browning said, because of unusually heavy student turnout. Students have a high rate of address changes which, paired with a problem of insufficient privacy booths, has caused slow lines. Browning said he had contacted Hillsborough County Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson, who has sent additional voting booths to speed up the process.

Browning had complimentary words for Manatee County, where one polling place experienced a power outage earlier today. The precinct reverted to a backup plan, he said, and allowed people to vote outside.

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