The Washington Post - USA (2020-10-20)

(Antfer) #1

A6 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2020


election 2020

BY AMY GARDNER,
MICHAEL MAJCHROWICZ
AND LORI ROZSA

Thousands of voters flocked to
the polls throughout Florida on
the state’s first day of in-person
voting Monday despite heavy rain
across the state, adding to evi-
dence that Americans are unusu-
ally eager to cast ballots in this
year’s presidential election.
In Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Fort
Myers, Sarasota, St. Petersburg
and many other Florida commu-
nities, voters lined up before polls
opened to cast their ballots in
person at the first available mo-
ment.
Kyle Woodard, a 44-year-old
schoolteacher from Pompano
Beach, said “it’s just a really impor-
tant year to vote,” after casting his
ballot at the African-American Re-
search Museum in Fort Lauder-
dale.
“I’m really inspired based on
what’s going on in the country,”
Woodard said. “So the first chance
I got, I was going to take it.”
Woodard said President
Trump’s constant attacks on mail
voting, including unsubstantiated
claims that it would result in wide-
spread fraud, are a blatant at-
tempt at voter suppression. “Being
Black, I’ve seen a lot of suppres-
sion my whole life,” he said. “This
is nothing new.”
With early voting underway
across the United States and
Americans casting ballots by mail
at historic numbers, nearly 30 mil-
lion have already voted with two
weeks to go before Election Day,
according to a tally by political
scientist Michael McDonald of the
University of Florida. That repre-
sents more than a fifth of the total
turnout in 2016.
Even as Americans are turning
out in record numbers, many of
the rules governing which ballots
will be counted and when are still
the subject of political and legal
wrangling.
In North Carolina, a weeks-long
dispute over mail ballots returned
without a witness signature came
to an end Monday, allowing coun-
ty election administrators to re-
sume the process to fix, or “cure,”
thousands of deficient ballots left


in limbo as the state continues its
early-voting period.
An agreement announced by
state Attorney General Josh Stein
(D) stated that ballots without a
witness signature will not be “cur-
able” with a simple certification or
affidavit, reversing previous guid-
ance that drew lawsuits from Re-
publicans. Voters who return bal-
lots without a witness signature
will receive a new ballot in the
mail, the State Board of Elections
stated in guidance issued Monday
afternoon. The first ballot will be
spoiled, and they will be able to
cast a new vote, unless they al-
ready voted in person.
A voter certification will serve
to correct other ballot problems,
such as a missing voter signature

or witness address.
Stein said in a tweet that his
office, the State Board of Elections
and the Republican National Com-
mittee agreed with the new policy.
In Pennsylvania, Republicans
in the state legislature announced
Monday that they have no plans to
pass a law allowing county elec-
tion officials to begin processing
mail ballots before Nov. 3, which is
prohibited under current law.
The decision makes it all but
certain, barring a landslide, that a
result won’t be known in Pennsyl-
vania on Election Day. It took more
than two weeks for election offi-
cials to complete the count after
Pennsylvania’s spring primary.
Separately, the Supreme Court
Monday night allowed Pennsylva-

nia election officials to count mail-
in ballots received up to three days
after Election Day, refusing a Re-
publican request to stop a pan-
demic-related procedure ap-
proved by the state’s Supreme
Court.
In Florida, meanwhile, state-
wide data from Friday showed a
distinct advantage for Democrats
among mail voters, with more
than 1 million Democrats casting
ballots by mail compared with
about 620,000 Republicans, ac-
cording to the Florida Democratic
Party.
It was too early to say whether
the first day of in-person voting
would favor Democrats or Repub-
licans. In other states where such
data is available, enthusiasm has

been far higher among registered
Democrats for mail and in-person
voting.
In downtown Sarasota, a major
Republican stronghold in Florida
since the 1970s, people began lin-
ing up to cast their ballots 90
minutes before Supervisor of Elec-
tions Ron Turner opened his doors
at 8:30 a.m.
The line stretched out of the
county office building, construct-
ed as a hotel in 1925 by circus
magnate John Ringling’s brother,
Charles, and into a tree-shaded
courtyard where a steady breeze
cooled the crowd. A partisan
breakdown of turnout so far was
not immediately available.
In Pinellas County, home of
Clearwater and St. Petersburg,

Democrats had outvoted Republi-
cans 3,331 to 3,023 by about 6 p.m.
In mail ballots, the Democratic
advantage in Pinellas, which nar-
rowly supported Trump in 2016,
was starker: 78,980 to 53,306.
In Lee County, home of Fort
Myers, Republicans were outvot-
ing Democrats by mail and in per-
son by the end of the day. Lee voted
overwhelmingly for Trump in
2016.
“Trump all the way,” said Melin-
da McGehee, 53, as she stood next
to her friend and fellow Republi-
can voter Alexandra Connor, 51, in
Fort Lauderdale. “Because being
in health care, I think it’s super
important everyone gets what
Trump’s trying to do with health
care. I’m super scared if Biden
wins what’s going to happen to my
career, my parents, my family and
my friends with health care.”
The novel coronavirus is doing
more in Florida than increasing
mail balloting; it also shuttered an
elections office in Okaloosa Coun-
ty, in the state’s Panhandle, after
Elections Supervisor Paul Lux and
several other employees tested
positive, according to the Destin
Log.
In-person voting also kicked off
in Colorado on Monday, but voting
centers were largely quiet in a
state where the majority of voters
have cast ballots by mail or drop-
box for many years.
Yet mail ballot returns show his-
toric enthusiasm in Colorado, too,
with Secretary of State Jena Gris-
wold reporting that 24 times more
voters have returned their ballots
than by this time in 2016. She also
said a historic number of people
applied to be election judges.
“I was really motivated to get
here and get my ballot in,” said
Robbie Martinez, 46, a journey-
man electrician, after dropping his
ballot into a dropbox in downtown
Denver. “I have never liked Trump.
I couldn’t even believe he became
president. It’s been a circus.”
[email protected]

Majchrowicz reported from Fort
Lauderdale. Rozsa reported from
West Palm Beach. Elise Viebeck in
Washington, Craig Pittman in
Sarasota and Jennifer Oldham in
Denver contributed to this report.

Thousands t urn out on Fla.’s first day of in-person voting


MARIA ALEJANDRA CARDONA/REUTERS
People line up at the North Miami Public Library polling station as in-person voting begins in Miami on Monday. Nearly 30 million
Americans have already voted with two weeks to go before Election Day.  Visit wapo.st/Voting2020 to learn about k ey voting terms.
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