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Voters willfully wait to vote early

Despite waits of two hours or more, thousands of Tampa Bay area voters are flocking to early voting sites.

The first voter arrived Friday at 6:15 a.m.

By 8 a.m., when the doors at the Dunedin Public Library opened, 148 people were in line, waiting for the 11th day of early voting to begin.

It hardly slowed down all day.

"I thought it would be easier to vote early, which is why I came out today," said Holly Bart, 30, of Dunedin. "It didn't prove to be that way."

Any doubts about early voting have been trampled by the crowds of people jamming libraries and government buildings during the past two weeks.

Some waited in line for more than two hours. Every day there is a new record for turnout. Officials expect peak numbers today, and again on Monday.

By Friday afternoon, 33 percent of the registered voters in Citrus County had cast a ballot, either at early voting sites or by absentee ballot.

Nearly 22 percent of registered voters in Hernando County had voted, as had 19 percent in Pinellas, 18 percent in Hillsborough and 18 percent in Pasco.

For many, the 2004 election can't end too soon.

"It's almost like they can bring closure to this whole thing," said Kurt Browning, the elections supervisor in Pasco County. "They can say, "I don't need to read another piece of mail, or listen to another political advertisement. I'm done, leave me alone!' "

Hernando County Elections Supervisor Annie Williams said she expects the largest daily turnout to come today. She has called extra employees in to work at the government center in Spring Hill. That's where the bulk of the county's early voters have come.

Hillsborough, which began early voting with 47 voting machines, has added 23. Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson said he plans to add four today.

Johnson said he hopes early voting will ease the flow on Election Day, but he's preparing for large crowds Tuesday. He already has consulted law enforcement.

"We are not going to tolerate any obstruction of the process," Johnson said.

At the request of the local chapter of the NAACP, Hillsborough sheriff's deputies will not be in uniform at polling places. A spokesman for Hillsborough Sheriff Cal Henderson said he doesn't want minority voters feeling intimidated on Election Day.

Pinellas Elections Supervisor Deborah Clark hired off-duty sheriff's deputies to stand watch at early voting sites. Deputies have had to escort some unruly people away.

But Clark said she will not have a law enforcement presence at her precincts on Election Day. Instead, the sheriff has provided Clark with contacts throughout the county for rapid response.

"I really don't think we are going to have the problems they have had in other areas," Clark said. "Compared to other areas, we have not seen the level of anger that we are reading about."

The Dunedin Library has been by far the busiest early voting site in Pinellas. People waited half an hour Friday just to reach the door to the library, where a sign warned of another two-hour wait.

Holly Bart and her friend Maureen Wheelden left work early Friday afternoon and arrived at the library before 1 p.m. They finished voting after 3 p.m.

Wheelden said she was surprised when she reached the front of the line and saw four machines vacant. The problem: election workers had only two laptop computers to verify that voters were in the registration database.

Some people couldn't take it.

Pat Franklin, 55, a computer technician from Clearwater, left after a half-hour. He recently moved to Florida from Washington state, where he said "you walk in, you walk out," when voting.

"I'm a little dismayed that the system (in Florida) is so poorly executed," Franklin said. "If this was the way it was handled last presidential election, I can see why there are so many jokes about Florida."

Anne Shepherd, the Dunedin library director, said more people have stayed. She said she was amazed by their willingness to stand in line, including many who are elderly. "We have people staying with canes and walkers," Shepherd said. "It must mean a lot to stay and vote."