Big Early-Voting Numbers in Broward, Palm Beach

In some cases, it's taken five minutes, in others, almost three hours, but people on Broward and Palm Beach Counties are coming out in droves to vote early. Nearly 80,000 people hit the early-voting booths over the weekend, with the biggest turnout coming from Broward, which recorded 54,338 early voters...

By Chris Joseph

October 30, 2012

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In some cases, it's taken five minutes, in others, almost three hours, but people on Broward and Palm Beach Counties are coming out in droves to vote early.

Nearly 80,000 people hit the early-voting booths over the weekend, with the biggest turnout coming from Broward, which recorded 54,338 early voters.

Altogether, that's more than double the first two days of early voting in 2008.

"People are excited about early voting," Broward County Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Evelyn Perez-Verdia said. "We have a four-page ballot -- people don't want to wait until Election Day to vote."

As of Monday, the Miramar Library and the Tamarac Branch Library were reporting the longest waiting times.

So far, roughly 1.9 million Floridians have come out for early voting.

The turnout has been split down the middle between the two parties statewide, with Democrats casting 798,693 ballots and Republicans casting 780,793. There are also about 312,000 ballots cast by independent voters, according to the Department of State.

Early voting ends Saturday, and the last day to request an absentee ballot is Wednesday.

You can find a full list of early voting locations in Broward and Palm Beach here.

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