JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Channel 4's Francesca Amiker spoke with Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland on Tuesday about turnout, challenges, when results will start coming in and more on the election.
Q: How has turnout been so far?
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Holland: It's been pretty steady. We've had about 10,000 voters per hour vote so far, and obviously we're into our ninth hour, so good and steady. We'd like to see a little bit heavier. We're hoping it can make four years ago -- the turn out then -- but it may be less.
Q: What challenges do you face?
Holland: You get challenges every election. We've had things like major traffic accidents where that will divert some people around. We've had some electricity outages at some locations, that kind of thing. Equipment sometimes has to be replaced. It's not working the way it should. That's why we have additional equipment and back-up, but other than that, everything is trucking along, moving toward that 7 p.m. deadline.
Q: Why was there a line early this morning on Monroe Street?
Holland: Downtown is not a precinct. So a lot of people think it should open at 7 (a.m.). Its' a normal office that opens at 7:30 (a.m.), but people can vote absentee there. And so people would come by there to vote absentee.
Q: Where can you absentee vote?
Holland: We'll accept them here at (One) Imeson (Park Boulevard). We can't issue them here, but if you've got one to drop off, you can come here to Imeson or you can go Downtown to 105 East Monroe St. and drop it off until 7 p.m.
Q: When is the official cutoff for voting?
Holland: You can get in the polls, but so once you're in line everything's good. But again, once again, if you come at 7:01 it doesn't matter if there's a line, you can't enter and get in line.
Q: So if there is a line at 7 p.m., you can not get in it?
Holland: You can not get at the back of the line. We'll actually place a deputy at the end of the line. And nobody else can get in line after 7 p.m.
Q: Any tips for last-minute voters?
Holland: Well the key is also especially to the voters going at the last hour -- make sure you know your right precinct. You can go online at duvalelections.com and check that, or you can call us at 630-1414. Make sure it's the right precinct. The worst that can happen is that you go to the wrong precinct and you only have 10 minutes and you have to go to another one and you can't make it. That's the tough call.
Q: When will we start to see results?
Holland: Well the key is first thing the voters will see is we have to report the absentee and early votes by 7:30. So you're going to see some quick results that come out right after 7 o'clock. Then the precincts start coming in. But the key is it's not over tonight, because by state law, the military overseas has 10 days to get their ballots in. So we'll have ballots coming in from overseas for the next week to 10 days. … You'll have results that we've got, but as we've mentioned there will be more results coming in from overseas voters.
Q: How late will you be working tonight?
Holland: The key is we do not leave here until we have all the equipment back and all the ballots back. We want to make sure if there's a recount, we can reconstruct the election, that we know where all our equipment is. So usually it's somewhere between 11:30 p.m. and 2 in the morning that we'll wrap up here.