TAMPA, Fla. — With many people still planning to head to the polls on Election Day, we wanted to let you know what and who you can expect inside your polling place.
You may have seen people across the street or around the corner from a polling place campaigning for a certain candidate. That's because anyone campaigning is required to 150 feet away from the entrance of polling locations.
But, who is allowed inside?
We checked with the Supervisors of Elections in both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties to find out.
"Florida law is very specific as to who is permitted in a polling place. Obviously, you have poll workers, obviously, you have a voter who is casting a ballot at that location and then you have to be already designated through a campaign or candidate or a political party to be a poll watcher," Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Julie Marcus said.
Poll watchers are inside to do just that: watch.
"Then we issue a credential that they literally have to wear around their neck that has their name on it and other information," Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer said.
"You cannot, under Florida law as a poll watcher, interact or engage or in any way shape or form interfere with the process within a polling place," Marcus said.
"They're mainly watching to make sure that we're doing our job correctly, that we're not bringing people in there and letting them vote a ballot without checking in finding out they are a registered voter, so it's a process. We furnish them with our training materials so that they can see what we're doing," Latimer said.
Latimer says you can expect to see up to four of these poll watchers at each precinct inside the polling place.
Both supervisors emphasized that voter intimidation will not be tolerated. So, if at any time when you are walking up to your polling place, inside voting, or even leaving and you feel like someone is threatening or intimidating you, you are encouraged to report it right away.
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