Early voting underway with few equipment issues

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (WINK) - Early voting is underway across Southwest Florida ahead of the Aug. 18 primary election, and election officials say voting equipment is largely operating as expected.

In Lee County, turnout reached 11.85% as of Monday morning, with 58,538 ballots already cast. That includes 52,281 vote-by-mail ballots and 6,257 early voting ballots.

WINK News visited three early voting locations in Lee County on Monday and saw voters coming and going at each location. Lee County election officials said there have been no major equipment issues during early voting.

The smooth start comes after election officials conducted required testing of voting and tabulation equipment ahead of the primary. During testing last month, officials discovered an operational error with one piece of equipment. Lee County Supervisor of Elections Jenna Persons-Mulicka said at the time that the equipment would be removed and not used in the primary.

Lee County election officials also addressed what voters should do if a tabulator does not accept their ballot on the first attempt.

Officials said that does not necessarily mean there is a problem with the machine. If the ballot is not inserted correctly, it may need to be reinserted. Once the tabulator accepts the ballot, election officials say it is counted.

Voter Nancy Wiles said her experience casting an early ballot Monday went smoothly.

“The voting process was great. No problems,” Wiles said. “It’s always been a fairly simple process here. Never had any issues with anything.”

Wiles, who said she has been voting since she was 18, also praised the availability of early voting locations.

“It’s gotten better. There are more voting sites, which has been good,” Wiles said. “I think it would be better if they had even more. It would just make it easier for people.”

Hendry County election officials did encounter a malfunction during early voting. Hendry County Supervisor of Elections Sherry Taylor told WINK News an equipment malfunction occurred Thursday at the LaBelle office.

Officials replaced the equipment with a backup machine and had voting up and running again in about 10 minutes. Taylor said only one person was waiting during that time and her office has not received any complaints.

Collier County also reported no equipment issues as of Monday morning. The county reported 2,705 early voting ballots and 19,117 vote-by-mail ballots, for a combined 21,822 ballots cast.

Charlotte County Supervisor of Elections Leah Valenti said her county has not experienced problems with its voting machines.

Valenti said one electronic pollbook was taking longer than expected to boot up in the morning, so officials switched it out to expedite the process. She said it was not the result of a malfunction during voter check-in.

“All voters have been checked in as normal and all ballots have been scanned appropriately,” Valenti said.

Valenti said backup systems are in place in case equipment problems arise.

“Voters can trust that any issues that we may face in the future with equipment, we have redundancies in place so that voting is not affected,” Valenti said.

Early voting schedules vary by county. In Lee County, early voting continues through Saturday, Aug. 15. Florida’s primary election is Tuesday, Aug. 18.