JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Nearly 30% of the people registered to vote in Duval county have cast their ballots as of Monday. It’s expected about the same number of people will do so Tuesday.
Duval County Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan is still calling for about a 60 to 62% turnout.
There has also been concern about safety at the polls and voter intimidation.
During early voting, for the most part, things have gone smoothly. There was one incident at the Prime Osborn Convention center where a woman claiming to be a poll watcher was accused of assaulting a security guard after being denied access.
There are people who are designated poll watchers from each party and they are allowed inside, but there are also poll observers who must be outside the 150-foot limit and sometimes people find them to be pushy or intimidating.
“We always take extra steps on security if we get rumors of things and so forth. But I think this is all trumped up. I don’t mean to use the ex-president’s name, but I don’t think there’s been any intimidation around,” Hogan said.
Hogan said some of the groups that are at the sites to prevent intimation have actually caused problems.
“We’ve had calls from people saying, ‘Who are these people? Why are they here? They’re actually intimidating. Some voters,’” Hogan said.
News4JAX was also there on Monday as poll workers picked up their supplies to open their precincts early Tuesday morning. Nancy McMillan is one of them.
“I am very excited about tomorrow’s election. And I just pray that everyone comes out and supports their candidates,” McMillan said.
She is not worried about being threatened and says she has not had a problem. She feels safe and has undergone training to deal with problems.
Besides getting ready for the polls to open, Hogan and the canvassing board were also checking vote-by-mail ballots Monday. They reviewed signatures that don’t match those on file. The board has also been looking at ballots that had to be remade because they were damaged or where a voter marked two candidates for one race. That is called an overvote. The canvassing board tries to determine voter intent, if they can’t, that race isn’t counted but the rest of the ballot is accepted. Right now there are 2,431 questionable ballots.
But at the end of the midterm elections, there won’t be much of a break from campaign ads.
There are city elections next spring with races for mayor, city council, and another sheriff’s race.