Polls are open in the Florida primary election until 7 p.m. By Tuesday morning, about 1 million Floridians had already voted, and, because of new laws, returns could come in tonight more quickly than in past years.
Fla. Gov. Rick Scott appointed Florida’s top elections official, Secretary of State Ken Detzner, this year. On Tuesday morning, Detzner spoke with reporters.
"I’m excited that this is my very first election," he said.
Detzner said no problems had been reported since polls opened at 7 a.m. And, he said, he’s not making any turnout predictions, but early vote totals this year were about 360,000 more than they were during the 2008 primary. He expects tonight's returns to come in smoothly as well.
"Because of the change in the law and the reporting requirement that supervisors report every 45 minutes, I think we’ll probably have results, maybe in a new record time," he said.
Once polls close at 7 p.m. Central Time, or 8 p.m. Eastern, the state will post results as they come in on its election tracker Web site.