Unstable Weather Keeps Early Voting Numbers Down

Early voting for Tuesday's primary election appears lower in Hillsborough County than in the past, but elections officials aren't sure whether the drop signals a trend or a concession to Mother Nature.

The two-week early voting period ended at 5 p.m. Saturday.

In Hillsborough County, 9,109 of 650,739 registered voters, or 1.4 percent, cast an early ballot by Friday. Saturday's results were not available by late Saturday, but barring a last-minute flood of voters, the numbers seem certain to be smaller than during the August 2004 primary.

That year, 12,560, or 2.1 percent, of registered voters cast an early ballot, said Angeline Cunningham of the Supervisor of Elections Office.

Cunningham said the weather was a big factor this year. Early voting was canceled Tuesday because of Tropical Storm Fay, and the storm kept the weather unstable most of the week.

Cunningham also noted that people could cast an early vote the Monday before the 2004 election, but state law now ends early voting on Saturday.

In Pasco County, however, early voting totals increased from 2004.

Of Pasco's 284,409 registered voters, 5,545, or 1.9 percent, participated in early voting by the time the polls closed at 5 p.m. Saturday.

In 2004, only 3,104 people voted early. Pasco Elections Supervisor Brian Corley said this year's count would have been higher with better weather.

This year's election is the first with the new optical-scan voting system.

"I'm pleased to say Pasco County had not one incident of any issues," Corley said.

Hillsborough elections officials also said they didn't experience any problems with the new system, which replaced touch screens and provides a paper trail of votes.

Legislators approved early voting in 2004, allowing such voting at local libraries and other locations throughout communities. Before then, voters could only cast ballots early through absentee voting or at the elections office.

The new law allowed voters to cast ballots at any early voting location, not just the voting site in their precinct.

Early voting for the Nov. 4 general election will be Oct. 20 to Nov. 1.