This year March 17 isn’t just about green clovers and St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. It is the day Floridians registered in the two major political parties get to vote in favor of their preferred candidate to represent their respective party in the November presidential election.
Reporter Andrea Perdomo spoke with WGCU’s Cary Barbor earlier today about the scene at her local polling location.
The polls in Florida begin to close at 7 p.m. EST and all polls will be closed by 8 p.m. EST.
Perdomo:
So Cary, where are you right now?
Barbor:
I am at a polling place in Bonita springs. It's my polling place is on 41, just north of old 41.
Perdomo:
And what does the scene look like over there?
Barbor:
It is pretty quiet. And the guy who works here said they've been 35 people in to vote since 7 a.m. It's not normally a real raucous, crowded polling place. But I'd say that's pretty quiet, even for this site.
Relatively quiet at the polls in Bonita Springs. An official said they’ve had 35 voters from 7 am - 10:30. @wgcu pic.twitter.com/9RMnArv9ON
— Cary Barbor (@cbarbor) March 17, 2020
Perdomo:
And where the poll workers wearing any type of protective gear?
Barbor:
No, they were not wearing protective gear. And I noticed that all the poll workers stations were filled. So in other words, there was no shortage of poll workers and I asked one of them do you feel nervous at all working today and I got a quick no back. So I feel Like people are just pleased to be doing the service. They really seem to have no worries about coronavirus or anything else.
Perdomo:
Yeah, that was going to be my next question like, did the atmosphere seem fearful or people were just going about their business as usual?
Barbor:
People were really just going about their business as usual. I mean, I noticed that we were sharing pens, you know, they're not cleaning off the desks in between the voters, but there are plenty of bottles of hand sanitizer all around. And so if you want to do that you can, but the workers aren't manically cleaning between voters or anything like that.
Perdomo:
Okay, and is there anything else that maybe you would like to share with us about your voting experience today?
Barbor:
Well, I just was going to say I'm talking to you at about 10:30 a.m. and my husband was here about an hour ago, he said it was completely empty at about nine or 9:30. So it seems that people are just kind is starting to roll in to vote. So we'll see how it goes with the return.
Perdomo:
All right, great. Thanks Cary so much.
Barbor:
You're welcome.
