Florida Gov declares State of Emergency, extends early voting hours

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Gov. Charlie Crist on Tuesday extended early voting hours across Florida to 12 hours a day.

The executive order comes after record early voting turnout has contributed to long lines at polling sites.

Current Florida law allows for early voting to be conducted eight hours a day each weekday and for a total of eight hours during the weekends.

With Crist's order, early voting sites will be open the rest of this week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. They will be open a total of 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday, the last day of early voting.

''It's not a political decision,'' Crist said moments after signing the order, which declares a state of emergency in Florida. "It's a people decision.''

Monday marked the largest single-day turnout in Miami-Dade and Broward counties so far, and throngs of voters continued to flock to South Florida polls Tuesday.

More than 43,000 people cast their votes in the two counties on Monday, roughly 5,000 more than on any other previous day.

In Miami-Dade, Monday's tally was 24,683. In Broward, 18,673. Both shattered previous single-day highs for 2008.

In all, nearly 1.2 million people statewide had voted as of 5 a.m. Monday -- roughly 10 percent of the state's registered voters.

The state didn't track daily early voting numbers in 2004. But Miami-Dade and Broward elections officials say they expect the early voting turnout to surpass that of the last presidential election.

The polls in Miami-Dade opened at 11 a.m. Tuesday with an all-too-familiar story: lines that wrapped around buildings, and even blocks.

Last week, both counties started posting estimated wait times at each of the 37 early voting spots, but Tuesday, those projections proved overly optimistic. Curious how long it took to vote at Model City Library Tuesday morning?

According to Miami-Dade's Elections website, it was only 90 minutes.

But ask the people actually in line, and the reality is it was roughly twice that long.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/A...ory/745088.html

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Good. I went yesterday morning. Took me about 1.5 hours. The throughput at that voting station was roughly 120 voters per hour. At 8 hours a day and six days a week, that makes somewhere around 6,000 voters per week; 12,000 total for early voting. There are 13 early voting locations in Hillsborough county which allows for about 150,000 early votes altogether in a county with over 700,000 registered voters. That would be some mess on 4 November if there were over half a million registered voters left to cast their ballot.

[Ban Hammer 14,584]

maybe this time they'll figure out how to stop hanging chads.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

maybe this time they'll figure out how to stop hanging chads.

I thought they got rid of the butterfly ballots years ago?

[Ban Hammer 14,584]

maybe this time they'll figure out how to stop hanging chads.

I thought they got rid of the butterfly ballots years ago?

they'll have a new excuse this time then.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

maybe this time they'll figure out how to stop hanging chads.

I thought they got rid of the butterfly ballots years ago?

they'll have a new excuse this time then.

They who?

[Ban Hammer 14,584]

maybe this time they'll figure out how to stop hanging chads.

I thought they got rid of the butterfly ballots years ago?

they'll have a new excuse this time then.

They who?

we're talking about florida voters, steven. stay with me.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

maybe this time they'll figure out how to stop hanging chads.

I thought they got rid of the butterfly ballots years ago?

they'll have a new excuse this time then.

They who?

we're talking about florida voters, steven. stay with me.

The butterfly ballots were asinine. Whoever designed them should be hung by his nads.

[SaadBell 0]

I am in Florida and already voted, gee I bet you can't guess who I voted for

[HAL 9000 96]

Well at least this means there more time for people to actually vote while attempted suppression is at work in some areas.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

What kind of moron would design a ballot like this?

Edited October 29, 2008 by Jabberwocky

[akdiver 3]

I think that if you're too dumb or disabled to figure out how to vote for the person you want, then you shouldn't be allowed to vote. Hell, chances are you're going to vote for a moron anyway, so what difference does it make if you vote for the moron you intended or some other moron?

Since when is voting a state of emergency anyway?

###### Florida voters.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I think that if you're too dumb or disabled to figure out how to vote for the person you want, then you shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Voting is citizen's right, not a privilege and unless your advocating that we move away from a democracy, suggesting we take away that right is nonsensical.

[akdiver 3]

Voting is citizen's right, not a privilege and unless your advocating that we move away from a democracy, suggesting we take away that right is nonsensical.

A democracy? Are you suggesting that you actually get to vote for president??

In any event - if we HAD a democracy, then yes, I would suggest moving away from it. Even the founding fathers were wary of creating a democracy - which is little more than mob rule with voting.

Thank god for the electoral college!!!

Edited October 29, 2008 by akdiver

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Voting is citizen's right, not a privilege and unless your advocating that we move away from a democracy, suggesting we take away that right is nonsensical.

A democracy? Are you suggesting that you actually get to vote for president??

In any event - if we HAD a democracy, then yes, I would suggest moving away from it. Even the founding fathers were wary of creating a democracy - which is little more than mob rule with voting.

Thank god for the electoral college!!!

The electoral college does not act autonomously. It is to reflect the will of the voters and has traditionally done so.