County-by-county voting problems • Latest results
Associated Press
BAY COUNTY - Minor ballot jams in optical scanners after ballots were read. Some machines delivered to the wrong polling places but no votes were lost.
BROWARD COUNTY - Dozens of poll workers didn't show up. Polls opened late in at least six cities. A Justice Department observer took names of people who left one precinct without voting. Democrats were given Republican ballots, which have no primary in the governor's race. Elderly voters waited more than three hours to vote in suburban Miramar. A Hollywood Democrat left without voting after a two-hour wait when new touchscreen machines weren't running. Less than a full complement of machines was working in many precincts. County Commission Chairwoman Lori Parrish, a critic of elections supervisor Miriam Oliphant, called Secretary of State Jim Smith asking him Tuesday morning to call out the National Guard. Smith called it "an overreaction" but later asked the governor for a two-hour extension in voting hours. Some poll stations closed early because they were not told to stay open later. In Hollywood, workers at one precinct held the door shut and cursed at voters.
DUVAL COUNTY - County officials sued for a 90-minute voting extension in a precinct at a senior center near downtown Jacksonville, a campaign stop for Janet Reno last Friday. It opened 90 minutes late because poll workers didn't realize they were supposed to turn on machines themselves. Dozens of voters left without casting ballots. County elections supervisor John Stafford called the situation "unfortunate." A precinct in a predominantly black Jacksonville neighborhood distributed Democratic primary ballots to all voters for the first 25 minutes. At least one Republican left without voting. U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, a black Democrat, tried to call the elections office to report problems but couldn't get through. Ballots jammed in optical-scanning machines due to rough tears at perforated lines. The problem was solved early. A handful of protesters picketed at election headquarters over the lack of voting machines for visually impaired voters.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY - People assigned to new precincts in redistricting went to their old ones. People who moved went to the wrong precincts.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY - Elections supervisor Pam Iorio calls the Gov. Jeb Bush's decision to keep precincts open an extra two hours "a big mistake" because she had no uniform way to notify all 353 precincts.
LEE COUNTY - Fort Myers voters said they were turned away for not showing a picture identification, which is not required.
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY - Janet Reno sued to extend poll hours by two hours in Broward, Duval, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. More than 100 voters were turned away when machines were off-line for about five hours in a precinct targeted by Reno in Miami's predominantly black Liberty City neighborhood. Some machines were inoperable at 36 precincts at 2 p.m. Machines reset themselves in another Liberty City precinct, routing voters back to the starting screen. Voting machines were activated late in precincts across the county ranging from affluent to poor black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Four of nine election workers did not show up at a Coral Gables precinct where the doors were not opened for workers to set up until 7 a.m. and the machines were not all running until 8:20 a.m. Voters say they were denied provisional ballots. In predominantly black Carol City north of Miami, poll workers demonstrated how to use machines by marking "yes" on a measure that would repeal the county's gay rights ordinance. Elections headquarters had trouble reaching precincts by telephone. "We expected problems, but not to this magnitude," said Gisela Salas, the assistant supervisor of elections.
OKALOOSA COUNTY - Republican voters, including many Air Force retirees, were upset by redistricting when they realized they had been moved from a contested congressional district to one with no race. New poll workers didn't realize a metal bar had to be removed from a slot on optical scanners before ballots could be entered. The problem was quickly solved. A battery died on one machine and was replaced.
ORANGE COUNTY - Election officials plan to recount 42 percent of precincts. Flaws on two of 64 different ballot cards used in 105 precincts require hand counting because tears made them unreadable on optical scanning machines.
PALM BEACH COUNTY - At least one voter left without casting ballots, saying she had trouble with new ATM-style voting machines. Some precincts reported problems with cards activator units used to imprint voters' precinct information. Backup units worked. Some poll workers didn't show up. About 115 poll workers quit Sunday. Workers in one Boca Raton precinct wanted to go home at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., so they turned the voting machines off. They couldn't be turned back on and the remaining voters had to use paper ballots.
PASCO COUNTY - Precinct opened a half-hour late when custodian arrived late to unlock building.
SARASOTA COUNTY - Precinct opened a half-hour late because of a printer problem.
UNION COUNTY - Nearly 2,700 ballots will be counted by hand after the optical-scan system that tallied ballots marked with special pens showed that every vote cast was for a Republican candidate. Results from local races were counted Tuesday night; workers will begin counting votes cast in statewide races Wednesday morning.
VOLUSIA COUNTY - A redrawn precinct forced some rural residents near Deltona to vote more than 20 miles from home. Two Oak Hill district races were incorrectly numbered on sample ballots published in newspapers and online.
