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Polls Open For Early Voting In Florida Presidential Primary

Joe Skipper
/
Reuters

The polls open today in Florida for the Presidential Preference Primary as early voting begins in some counties.

Hillsborough County is opening 15 sites and Polk County has nine locations available for the next two weeks.

Craig Latimer, Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections, added that registered voters also can order a vote-by-mail ballot until March 9, 2016.

“By the time we mail it to them, I don’t think there’s going to be time for them to mail it back to us. So, we’re going to be urging people that receive a mail-in ballot late like that that they drop it at one of the 15 Early Vote sites during early voting or at any of our four offices,”

Mail-in ballots are already pouring into his office. As of early morning Feb. 29, more than 100,000 mail-in ballots had been sent out and more than one-third have already been returned.

“Election Day, March 15, is not the first day to vote, it’s the last day to vote,” Latimer said.” And if you wait until the last date to vote I hope that you don’t have any problems getting your car started, don’t have a flat tire, nobody’s sick. Anything to prohibit you from getting out to vote.”

But only Republicans and Democrats can vote because Florida’s primary elections are restricted to only party members.

Links to early voting in the Tampa Bay Area:.

Bobbie O’Brien has been a Reporter/Producer at WUSF since 1991. She reports on general news topics in Florida and the Tampa Bay region.
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