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Highlands Today

Early Voting Numbers Close In On 2004 Total

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: October 28, 2008

SEBRING - County voters continued to file in at the Highlands County Government Center Monday, as the Highlands County Supervisor of Elections office released a six-day total of 10,118 early voters.

By comparison, the 12-day early voting total for the 2004 general election was 11,342.

Of the 10,118 early voters, 3,975 were Republicans, 4,887 were Democrats and 1,256 were registered as other, according to Norma Stokes, assistant supervisor of elections for Highlands County.

Highlands County has 66,092 registered voters, with 28,671 of them listed as Republicans; 26,383 are Democrats and 11,038 people registered as other.

As of 10:25 a.m. Monday, Stokes said 5,415 people voted at the Government Center; the Avon Park City Council Chambers received 2,126 early voters and workers at Lake Placid Town Hall saw 2,577 early ballots cast.

"They're really turning out," said Stokes.

Early voting ends at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1.

Poll Worker Trainer Penny Ogg said Monday that they are utilizing about 30 poll workers at the three locations for early voting and will have 260 poll workers on hand for Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Requests for absentee ballots are up, too. In the 2004 general election, the supervisor of elections counted 7,140 absentee ballots, while in 2006 there were 4,036 absentee ballots received.

This year 8,648 voters have requested absentee ballot forms, but only about 5,600 have mailed them in, said Stokes.

Signed absentee ballots must be received at the Supervisor of Elections Office no later than 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, in order to be counted.

Stokes said each optical scanner machine is equipped with a modem, making it possible to send the election results to the elections office by telephone.

On Election Day, assuming there are no glitches with any of the modems as happened in the primary election, she hopes the results would be called in by about 7:30 p.m.

However, because parts of Florida exist in the Eastern Time Zone and parts of it exist in the Central Time Zone, no results will be released until after 8 p.m., Stokes said.

It could take even longer if there are modem glitches and the ballots have to arrive at the elections office. It takes about 45 minutes to physically bring the ballots from the supervisor's farthest polling place, the Brighton Baptist Church located out on State Road 70 west near Okeechobee.

They would then have to be counted.

Joe Seelig can be reached at (863) 386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com .

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