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Voters Should Expect Lines And Use Patience

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 4, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - About 4.2 million Floridians have already voted in the presidential election, Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning said Monday - but Election Day voters should expect to stand in line anyway.

"Voters have been patient," Browning said in a briefing for reporters. "We also want to urge voters to be patient and prepared ... when they go to the polls. ... I'm encouraging voters to have reviewed and marked their sample ballots before heading to the polling places ... we will have lines."

Voters who cast early or absentee ballots account for 38 percent of Florida's 11.2 million registered voters.

By comparison, a total of 48 percent of Florida voters cast ballots in the 2004 presidential election.

The Florida Democratic Party claimed to lead by 358,280 votes on Sunday. The state GOP did not dispute the claim.

Browning said this year's vote may equal or exceed the state's 83 percent turnout of 1992. He indicated that he has not ruled out an emergency extension of Election Day voting hours, though he stressed that current rules permit all voters standing in line at the polls at 7 p.m. to vote.

The state and counties continued to reach out to Florida's remaining 10,556 new voters whose applications failed a state database check.

Those unverified voters, all of whom applied to vote after Sept. 8, may vote by provisional ballot if they cannot reconcile the problem with their registrations. Provisional ballots will count only if the voter resolves the problem before 5 p.m. Thursday.

Browning said he will not release statewide election results today before 8 p.m., to avoid having an impact on Panhandle voters in the Central Time Zone.

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382.

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