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Posted Tuesday, November 04, 2008 6:09 PM

Fine in the Sunshine

Newsweek
By Arian Campo-Flores, Catharine Skipp, Amy Green and Lynn Waddell


So far so good in Florida. Though electoral disaster always looms as a possibility here, this Election Day appears to be unfolding quite smoothly. Most polling sites visited by NEWSWEEK reporters throughout the state had relatively short waits and only minor glitches. Many locations started off the day with long lines, as voters sought to cast ballots before heading in to work. Others were simply fired up with enthusiasm. “I wanted to be first,” said Helen Scavella, 45, who arrived at her South Miami precinct at 3:30 a.m. “I wanted to make sure my vote counted, and I didn’t want to stand in line.” Behind her was Viola Bryan, 65, who got there at 5 a.m. “I would have stayed in line for a whole week” to vote for Obama, she said.

One explanation for the calm proceedings: roughly one quarter of registered voters statewide had cast their ballots early, thereby easing the strain today. In Pinellas County, for instance, which is home to St. Petersburg, 34 percent of registered voters had cast ballots early, and the number of absentee ballots received this year is double the tally in 2004. To be sure, there have been long lines at some locations. At the University of Central Florida in Orlando, wait times have reached two to three hours consistently throughout the day. Down in the Miami area, a line at a polling station at South Kendall Community Church stretched down the block at midday, with no sign of letting up.

There have been reports of voting glitches, but so far, nothing overly disconcerting. Problems have been isolated in Pinellas and Hillsborough (home to Tampa) Counties, according to election supervisors. “Everything is running fairly smoothly,” says Jamal Simmons, a Florida spokesman for Sen. Barack Obama. In Orlando this morning, some voting machines jammed when voters unaccustomed to the new optical-scan machines fed the ballots in too forcefully, according to Sultana Ali, a spokeswoman for the Orange County supervisor of elections. “There’s no concern about the votes,” Ali said. “The votes are fine.”

At a precinct in Hialeah Gardens, in the Miami area, some voters reported being redirected to other polling sites nearby. One woman, Evelyn Cartagena, 34, was told her registration was invalid. Though she says she registered by the deadline and received her voter card, a poll worker told her she hadn’t registered in time for this cycle. “I was a little upset because I couldn’t vote for [Obama],” she said. “That’s one vote less.”

In a testament to vigorous voter-registration efforts in the state, numerous voters interviewed today by NEWSWEEK were first-timers-and almost all said they’d voted for Obama. In Ft. Lauderdale, Stephon Brown, 18, says he decided against early voting because he wanted to experience the excitement of election day. “It is a historic election,” he said while standing in line. “It inspired me to vote.” Up in Kissimmee, near Orlando, Constance Rivera, 28, cast her first-ever vote for Obama. “I’m concerned about the country getting on its feet,” she said, accompanied by her two children. “Now that I have kids, the responsibility is on me. I have to get out and vote.”
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Member Comments

Posted By: adsd23 (November 5, 2008 at 12:54 AM)

Andrew et al.,

Let me be one of the first to thank you for all of the columns you've provided us with over the past few months.  It's made for informative and enjoyable reading - especially with multiple posts per day.  Hopefully we'll have more opportunities to hear from you in the weeks and months ahead - I'll be more knowledgeable about what's going on if we do.

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