Voters across South Florida kept heading to the polls Tuesday, despite rain and a brief technical problem in Broward County that affected the morning rush.
In Broward, a new feature meant to make sure voters received the correct ballot malfunctioned when polls opened at 7 a.m. Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott said the failure led some people to think they had been handed the wrong ballot, which was not the case. The problem took about 20 minutes to fix, and Scott said some voters left without casting a ballot. It was not immediately clear how many were affected.
At the North Dade Regional Library in Miami Gardens, a steady stream of voters came through with no major problems reported. Some people showed up at the site only to learn it was not their assigned polling place.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 129,000 people had voted in Broward and more than 161,000 in Miami-Dade.
The U.S. Department of Justice also sent election monitors to five Florida counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward. The department said the effort is its largest election-monitoring operation in its history. Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia said the monitors check that election workers follow federal rules, including requirements for English and Spanish ballot materials and protections against discrimination.
Voters interviewed at the polls cited democracy, immigration and the country’s future as reasons they came out.
