Per Executive Order 08-217, the Florida Governor extended early voting hours throughout Florida by declaring a State of Emergency.  The new hours are 7AM-7PM through Friday and then 12 hours on the weekend.  As before, the weekend hours will vary from county to county with some open on Sunday and other not.  Check your local Supervisor’s website for more details in your county.

Is this legal?  It happened in 2002 when the Governor then extended polling hours on primary election day to 9PM – the State Speaker of the House has questioned the action but says the Legislature will not challenge it.

So have people heard about this?  My personal experience is yes as the early voting site I drove by this morning had a line wrapping around the building at 7:25AM despite a 46 degree temperature.

According the Palm Beach Post, after several attempts Palm Beach County cannot locate all of its ballots. Reports have narrowed the amount of ballot missing to about 3,000, with 102,000 votes supposed cast, but only 99,045 ballots located. Initially on election night, one judicial race was decided by 17 votes, while after a recount, the margin is now 60 votes. The apparently unsuccessful candidate for that race has filed suit against the State and local officials demanding either the election be overturned or a new election be held for the position.

Reports so far, mostly out of South Florida, cast a positive review on the first days of early voting using paper ballots in formerly touchscreen locations.  The Sun Sentinel ran one article titled “Paper ballots get rave reviews” in Broward County, and another article titled “Computer problems frustrate some on first day of early voting,” related to some delays in Palm Beach County because of problems with the state voter registration system.  The Miami Herald proclaimed “No hitches, no glitches on first day of voting” and  a UPI wire story stated “Early Florida voting goes flawlessly.”

The St. Pete Times published an article today about concerns about the potential problems with paper ballots and recounts.  What I found most interesting is the news that the State intends to issue a new “voter intent” rule on September 28th – in between the primary and general elections.  This rule deals with how local canvassing boards should determine whether a voter intended to mark a vote selection when a question arises.   The existing rule is published by the State online, along with an example sheet.

The proposed rule has been in the works for months, but the link on the State’s website to the notice of rule does not lead anywhere and has the odd name of  http://election.dos.state.fl.us/rules/proposed-rules/pdf/R1S-2.027Stand4DeterVoterChoice.pdf – certainly not the best file naming idea.

Early voting in Florida for the August 26th primary election has begun – the State has published a master list of early voting sites for all counties.