EARLY VOTING IN BROWARD COUNTY

PREFACE
In my two previous posts, I talked about being a pollworker for the primary and general elections this year. As a pollworker, I have to vote by mail or in person during early voting because I can't vote on election day, since I'm working the polls. In 2016, I voted by mail-in ballot. I was confident that my vote would be counted, even after the debacle of Bush vs. Gore and 50,000+ votes being "lost" in Dade county...found in a cabinet, not counted. Then I heard that Florida has an "exact signature matching" law that I assumed Rick Scott would enforce rabidly if the votes were close.

STORY
I made some mistakes on my mail-in ballot so I was forced to vote in person at an early voting site. There are many in Broward county and they cover any precinct, so there's no restriction that you go to a specific location. You can vote at any early voting polling site. I delayed and delayed, doing research into the many, many amendments listed on the ballot. I had voted 'yes' on several that had confusing wording. They do that on purpose to get things passed. The common person with minimal education (HS which teaches "don't question") would think that some of these amendments were clear cut, but they'd be wrong. So I finally settled on my votes and headed to my closest polling place, the library in Weston, just west of where I live.

My sister had early voted at the library in Cooper City in the middle of the second week. No waiting. In and out in 15-20 minutes. Easy-peasy. I waited to the last minute. 6 p.m. on Sunday night. Polls close at 7 p.m. I waited in line, outside in the dark, in the heat for an hour before getting inside the building. There were about 200 people ahead of me, and when I entered the building, I heard over the walkie-talkie that there were about 160 people behind me when they officially closed the polls. It was still worth it to get my vote counted!

CONCLUSION
Now that there is an automatic recount generated by the closeness of the voting, I am glad I didn't send in my mail-in ballot. My signature has changed over the years. I don't know what signature they have on record for me. My signature is enough like my license that I got in 2012 but I don't know what it looked like when I originally registered to vote. I could have signed with my middle initial, which I do not do anymore. My license has my middle name spelled out, but my signature is without my middle name, nor my middle initial. Would that mean that if I had mailed my ballot and Rick Scott sues for scrutiny of mail-in ballots, that my vote would not have counted?!

Glad I voted in-person! I don't know how many 1000s or 10s of 1000s of people voted last minute in the early voting, but it just ended on Sunday, right before the general election on Tuesday. The deadline for mailed-in ballots ended at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6th, even if they were hand-delivered to the Board of Elections. All the precincts had to be picked up by truck and delivered to the regional office of the Board of Elections. Broward county does not have county trucks to do this. Elections come every two years and trucks have to be rented for this job. Election officials drive those trucks, certified and sworn in by the Board of Elections. There are procedures upon procedures to secure and deliver the paper ballots that have been counted by the voting machines. The voting machines have transmitted the voting information to the regional office. The paper ballots are backup. They now have to be counted, along with the mail-in ballots, and the paper ballots that back up the early voting electronic transmission, and all must be reconciled.

I think I may update my voter's registration to update my signature. 2020 is right around the corner!!