TAMPA, Fla. - Voters showing up in person Tuesday to cast ballots in Florida’s primary elections appeared to encounter just a few hiccups, with officials deploying thousands of face masks, buckets of hand sanitizer and cartons of disposable pens as safeguards amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tuesday’s low-key voting took place as a record number of Floridians opted to cast their ballots by mail, after elections officials encouraged voters to take advantage of the state’s no-excuse vote-by-mail system to curb the spread of COVID-19.
“It’s been pretty quiet. That doesn’t mean that an individual wasn’t having an issue they needed to deal with, but it’s not been the normal flood of calls,” Liza McClenaghan, state chairwoman of Common Cause Florida, told The News Service of Florida late Tuesday afternoon.
This browser does not support the Video element.
Voting by mail, explained
With Florida already experiencing high vote-by-mail turnout, the Pinellas County supervisor of elections took the time Monday to explain what happens to ballots once they reach the elections office.
More than 2.2 million Floridians had voted by mail as of Tuesday morning, a nearly 72 percent increase from the 1.28 million votes cast by mail in the state’s 2016 primary elections, according to the Florida Division of Elections website.
CLICK BELOW FOR LIVE ELECTION RESULTS:
Statewide races:
Local county primaries:
- Citrus County
- DeSoto County
- Hardee County
- Hernando County
- Highlands County
- Hillsborough County
- Manatee County
- Pasco County
- Pinellas County
- Polk County
- Sarasota County
- Sumter County
Information from the News Service of Florida was used in this report.