The voting booth is a symbol of our democracy in place, and across South Florida, the equipment is ready for voters to arrive Tuesday at 7 a.m. for Election Day.
It’s been a historic election already.
Miami-Dade County’s elections supervisor says they’ve had 64% turnout already and expect to reach 80%
In Broward, almost 70% of registered voters have already cast a ballot.
The polls will be open Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. (People in line to vote at 7 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot.)
“We are ready to open our doors tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.,” Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Christina White said. "But for the voters it’s very important: You have to go to your assigned precinct on Election Day, unlike early voting. So look at your voter information card. Go on the website and make sure you know where to vote 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and make sure you bring a valid photo ID with you.”
Valid ID can include a Florida driver’s license, identification card, U.S. passport or some other form of photo identification with a signature.
“All of our poll workers will have masks, face shields or gloves and they’re going to be instructed to wipe down all the common touchpoints,” White said. “[Miami-Dade] voters are required to wear a mask.”
If you still have a vote-by-mail ballot, it’s too late to put it in the mail — but you can drop it off at these specific locations or decide to vote in person at the poll instead.
By the numbers
In the 2016 general election, 998,605 voters went to the polls in Miami-Dade County.
Already, the county has received over a million ballots.
That leaves about 560,000 registered voters in Miami-Dade who could still cast their ballots.
Broward has also seen a heavy early turnout.
“People have front-loaded the election. It’s unprecedented that we have almost 70% of our voters that have already cast a ballot,” Broward Supervisor of Elections Peter Antonacci said.
Antonacci says Broward expects somewhere between 100,000 and 125,000 voters to show up at the polls on Election Day.
“That’s more like a municipal election instead of a presidential election,” he said.
And it should make Tuesday run more smoothly and leave shorter wait times.
Checking the ballots
Crews have been working around the clock dealing with daily mini-tsunamis worth of ballots, and on Monday canvassing boards in both counties were reviewing them.
In Miami-Dade, about 50 signatures were found to not match. Those voters will receive a letter, an email, a text or a call and will have until Thursday to correct their ballots.
Michael Udine, a Broward Commissioner who is on his county’s canvassing board, says they’re fortunate to have gotten a head start.
“The goal is tonight to have everything that we have in the building tabulated and tomorrow is just dealing with the Election Day stuff,” he said.
FOR MORE INFO
See our full Local 10 voters guide
Find out if your mail-in ballot is rejected, then get it ‘cured’
Going to the polls Tuesday? Here’s how to prepare and what to know