Lee County Supervisor of Elections Tommy Doyle describes today's primary election as the playoffs leading up to the general election "Superbowl" this November.
WGCU’s Andrea Perdomo spoke with Doyle about early voting, voter intimidation, and what turnout has been like so far in Lee County.
Polls close in Lee County at 7 p.m.
Here is a transcript of their conversation.
Perdomo:
Has your office seen an increase of vote by mail ballot requests?
Doyle:
Yeah. We're in a historical request for a primary election, for this election so far. I think in 2018, we were up around 180,000 requests for the general election. We've already surpassed 180, we're reaching 190, we'll probably get over 200,000 requests in before the general election, and I expect 50 to 60% of those will be returned. In this primary election, vote by mail has been very, very popular.
Perdomo:
And how has turnout been so far today?
Doyle:
It's coming in steady. I haven't checked the numbers this morning, but I don't expect a big turnout. I'm thinking that we're going to maybe have close to 20,000 people vote today. If we have that, then our turnout rate is going to be roughly around between 30 and 35%, which is still low, but not bad for a primary election.
Perdomo:
And how did early voting go for this year's primary?
Doyle:
It all went smooth. It was very slow. In the early voting period, we only had just over 10,000 people vote, which is very slow. This is the playoffs. Super Bowl is in November. We're going to have a lot more people voting. We're going to have a turnout that's going to be upwards to 90%. So, it's going to be a whole different ball game.
Perdomo:
And you're anticipating that the majority of those are going to be between early voting and vote by mail, or primarily driven by vote by mail?
Doyle:
No, I think most of it's going to be vote by mail. Early voting and election day voting will be similar. In the past we've been had in Lee County it's over 50% of our voters voted by mail. It could be 25 to 30% early, and then 25 or 30% on election days. And that's how it's been panning out, but I think you're going to see a lot more people voting by mail, and it's going to be 20% possibly.
Perdomo:
There was a report in Collier County of voter intimidation at the polls over the past weekend. What measures does your office take to prevent something like that from happening in Lee County?
Doyle:
Our poll workers... And I'm sure Collier County train their poll workers. Sometimes people just can't help themselves, you know? But they're trained to be very nonpartisan. Nobody leaves our polling locations without an opportunity to vote, and that's just the way it is. If you go to a polling place, we don't argue. You can fill out a provisional ballot. We will counsel you that your provisional ballot may not count because you're in the wrong precinct, because you're the wrong party, and so on. So this is why we send out a voter information card so the voter can review his status. You can go online and review your status and how you voted and how you're registered and what your affiliation is.
Perdomo:
And why is it important for a person to go to their designated polling location?
Doyle:
This is a primary. Of course, Florida's a closed primary, and that's confusing for new voters in Lee County and in Florida. And we have 511 different ballot styles. So when we check you in and you're a Republican in Precinct 17 and you're in District Five of the county, you're going to have possibly a different ballot than a Republican in Precinct 79 in District Two area with the congressional races. You may not have a congressional race then because you're not in District 19, or you may not have the Florida Senate race because you're not in the correct district for that. There's 511 different ballot styles, and so everything's not going to be exactly the same.
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