While the national narrative has been chaos in Florida voting, the polls are open and running for Election Day 2012 without interruption -- other than Mother Nature's contribution, rain in Central Florida, Secretary of State Ken Detzner said Tuesday morning.
Lines have been reported in a few counties, but none excessively long, he said.
We had a round of calls with staff and supervisors of elections from around the state and things seem to be going very, very well, Detzner said.
In Escambia County, Floridas westernmost county on the Panhandle, there was a report of a woman falling in the parking lot. She broke her leg, but she still voted.
She was carried into the polling place by her husband so she could vote and then was transported to the hospital, Detzner said. Were grateful for her interest and passion to vote.
Detzner, after the first of three scheduled conference calls with Gov. Rick Scott on the status of the contest, said he expects a record turnout for the contest, with more than 4.5 million Floridians having already voted absentee and in the early voting methods.
We could possibly see -- and these are projections we get from supervisors out in the field, with early and absentee voting -- we could approach as many as 9 million people voting, Detzner said.
In 2008, 8,456,329 Floridians, 75.2 percent of the states registered voters, went to the polls for the general election.
Detzner doesnt expect reports of long lines during early voting to discourage voters today. The number of voting locations has grown from 300 during early voting to around 6,000.
At 8 a.m. it took less than eight minutes to go from the car, fill out a two-page -- back and front -- ballot and return to the car at a northern Tallahassee polling precinct.
The overall number of precincts is down from 2008 across the state because many supervisors have consolidated precincts as the economy tightened.
Detzner said representatives of the Division of Elections are scattered throughout the state -- in specific counties or three-county regions -- to provide technical assistance where needed.
Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties each have state officials assigned to those counties, he said. Others in the Tampa area are spending the morning in Hillsborough County, with plans to be in Pinellas County in the afternoon.
We have an ongoing communications strategy with every single supervisor. So any issue that comes up that we need to address to support them as the day goes on, to address any problems, we have a direct line of communications, Detzner said.
Election Night results will be available at http://enight.elections.myflorida.com/.
All results will be preliminary until Saturday, when the unofficial results are due from the state supervisors of elections.
Scott, Detzner and two Cabinet members will certify the results on Nov. 20.
A recount cannot be ordered until the unofficial results are reported.
A machine recount is ordered when the statewide results are within half a percent, and if the results after the machine recount are within a quarter, a hand recount will take place, but only to review the over and under votes.
Voters in line at polling places when the polls close will be allowed to vote.
Absentee ballots must be received by the supervisors office by 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
