The combination of voters casting ballots early and returning vote-by-mail ballots is adding up to a high voter turnout in Leon County.
Chris Moore, deputy elections supervisor for Leon, says the county is averaging between 4,500-5,000 voters per day across 10 early voting sites.
About 43,000 people have participated in early voting as of Wednesday afternoon. In combination with 53,000 vote-by-mail ballots returned, that has Leon nearing an impressive benchmark:
“We’re approaching 100,000 ballots turned in. And we have 215,000 registered voters, so we’re almost to the halfway mark,” Moore told WFSU Wednesday.
Early voting comes to a close in Leon County on Sunday. Moore says with that window of time rapidly closing, those hoping to return vote-by-mail ballots may want to consider dropping it off in-person. There’s also an option for drop-off past Sunday.
“You may not want to put that ballot in the mail at this point, and hope it’s going to get back to us,” Moore said. “So, either drop it off at one of our early voting sites up through Sunday, or bring it to our office on Monday and Tuesday, and you’ll be able to drive up and put it in a box yourself.”
Moore wants voters to know those drop boxes will be at the Supervisor of Elections’ office on Apalachee Parkway.
“On Monday the 2nd, we have drop boxes from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. out in our parking lot, and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on election day,” he explained.
There are forms of identification voters can use at polling sites other than a drivers license, if they don’t have one or if the license is expired. Moore says voters have options.
“There are a host of other IDs that are allowed. What we really need at the end of the day is something that has a picture, and something that has the voter’s signature, and we can pair it from two of the IDs that are allowed if we need to,” Moore said.
The deputy elections supervisor gave some examples of allowable, alternate forms of identification:
“A passport, I believe, has all of those elements present. A student ID, I think, has a picture but not a signature. So if you have a student identification with a picture, then you have a debit or a credit card with your signature on it, we can use that in combination to check somebody in and confirm the ID.”
