HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLA. -- Have you voted yet? Election day is this Tuesday and today was the end of early voting. Hillsborough County election officials tell us today was the busiest day yet at the polls and in that county alone over 200,000 voters have already cast their ballots. 10 News reporter Sarah Hagen was there and shows us what voters can expect at the polls.
The polls closed at 7:00 P.M., and wont be back open until 7:00 A.M. on election day. We were there and spoke with the election supervisor and voters to find out what went well and what needs to be done better.
"Last year I went the day off and stood in line, today it was quick, took 4 minutes," said voter John Daux.
We've told you about Common Cause--a non-profit advocacy organization based in D.C--which studied nonpartisan government recommendations for the swing states to make elections better. They've released a report looking at if those states--including Florida--addressed important issues or not.
Expanding opportunities to vote before Election Day was on that list.
"State wide association of supervisors was instrumental in getting additional days of voting--2012 limited to 8 days, now we have up to 15 days," said the Hillsborough Elections Supervisor, Craig Latimer.
Another suggestion: transitioning to electronic poll books. Pinellas County already does this, and Hillsborough County is starting. "20% of our polls on election day we are piloting electronic poll books. No more paper. We will electronically check people in," said Latimer.
One area that Florida failed is adopting online voter registration.
"Online registration is wonderful, we are almost there--you can fill out the registration but then you have to print it to sign it," said Latimer.
That's an area that people at the polls say gets their vote, "Register to vote [by] any means necessary. If I can register online, get more people to vote, absolutely. Make that happen? Yes, make that happen," said Darina Glover-Russell.
