Dade Down To The Wire In Election Day Preps
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - With an unprecedented early voting period behind them, Miami-Dade election workers were setting up Monday to make sure they had a smooth Election Day on Tuesday.
"Our poll workers have been trained our equipment has been tested. We are set up. We are ready for tomorrow," said Christina White, the Supervisor of Elections for Miami-Dade County.
Miami-Dade Elections' Canvassing board met Monday to go over any discrepancies in the ballots, checking for signatures that don't match.
"If the signature doesn't match or the voter forgets to sign, then that ballot is rejected and is not tabulated in the election," said White.
The U.S. Justice Department said it will have more than 500 monitors and observers out Tuesday, watching polling including Miami-Dade County. They'll be looking for any voting rights violations.
Related: Justice Dept. Will Have Eyes On Florida On Election Day
Randy Pestana - a policy analyst from Florida International University's Gordon Institute for Public Policy - says the minority vote will make an impact on Tuesday.
"Hispanics are voting at record numbers so they're coming out and are enthused by this race whether to vote against Donald Trump or currently coming out to get their voice in the American system," said Pestana.
He went on, " It's not going to be Gore versus Bush. It's going to be a strong divide, maybe a 2012 type election victory for Clinton worth 80,000 thousand on her side over."
Miami-Dade County saw 475,864 in-person early votes during the two-week period, and 287,224 mail votes, for a total of 763,088. That's a 61 percent increase from 2012.
"We do have a significant number of voters who have already voted close to 60% already. I'm looking forward to a very successful day tomorrow," said White.
Election Day: What You Need To Know Before Voting
At the county's election headquarters in Doral, there was a steady stream of voters who dropped off vote-by-mail ballots and others who wanted to fix issues on ballots they had already mailed in.
Rene Luis hand delivered his ballot to the elections department, he said he voted for Donald Trump.
"I think the way he has spoken at times has alienated a lot of people and I think he didn't say it in the best of ways," said Luis. "This is the most passionate I've ever been as opposed to any other election."
JoAnn Brown was just as passionate about her choice in Hillary Clinton. She went to the elections department after receiving a call from a volunteer that there was something wrong with her vote-by-mail ballot.
"I had to do an affidavit to prove that I am who I am, that's my signature when I voted," said Brown.
Dario Gonzalez also got a call about the signature on his ballot. Gonzalez, who was born in Cuba and raised in America, said he has faith in the country.
The candidates focus a lot on stuff that they perceive is wrong, that gets the voters excited, that they are angry about," said Gonzales. "But there's also a lot of PR and internal management of the country that has to go on, you can't forget that stuff like that matters too."
On Tuesday, 591 precinct specific polling locations will open throughout the county at 7 a.m. They will remain open until 7 p.m. Click here to find out where to vote.
What happens in Miami-Dade county and throughout the rest of the state is crucial for Tuesday's results. Florida voters chose the electoral vote winner in the last five presidential elections.
Complete #Campaign2016 coverage here: cbsmiami.com/campaign2016
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