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Elections Official: Judge Correct In Denying Crist's Motion To Extend Voting Time

Detzner at lectern
Jessica Palombo
/
WFSU News

As Florida election supervisors continue counting mail-in ballots, Gov. Rick Scott’s winning margin is just over 1 percent. But before Scott was declared the winner late Tuesday night, Democratic rival Charlie Crist filed an emergency court motion to extend voting hours in one South Florida county. A judge denied his campaign’s request.

Crist filed the motion shortly before the 7 p.m. poll-closing time, asking a judge to keep Broward County polls open two extra hours. The complaint said a Broward polling place had been offline for 90 minutes, and some of the county’s voters gave up because they had problems updating their addresses in the electronic system.

But Secretary of State Ken Detzner said Tuesday night a judge ruled correctly in dismissing Crist’s request.  

"Actually we did not hear of any of those reports that were alleged in the lawsuit. They were a surprise to us. We knew that there were some issues regarding the e-poll books from around the state. That was not unusual; it was not a systematic problem. And Supervisor Snipes did a good job of resolving those problems on a timely basis," he says. 

Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes told CBS Miami no voters were turned away because of administration issues.

Crist saw the heavily Democratic county as vital. But just 44 percent of voters turned out there, according to the supervisor's website.