Early Voting In Primary Election Set For Monday In Miami-Dade
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Early voting for the upcoming Primary Election is set for tomorrow in Miami-Dade County.
Beginning on Monday, August 15th, and running through Sunday, August 28th, voters can avoid the crowds and cast their vote early.
On Sunday, Miami-Dade election workers brought about 5 percent of the county's voting equipment to headquarters, starting the process of three state-required tests.
"I like to refer to it as a confidence test for our voters," said Supervisor of Elections Christina White.
Keeping things transparent, staff takes the voting units and runs them through the entire process, from the opening of polls and all the way through voting, and transmits the results. After, they'll compare the machines to make sure the predetermined outcome they put matches the tabulation.
And while hackers breaking into sensitive emails and documents have made headlines around the world, it isn't something the county is worried about.
"Hacking elections in the state of Florida is not something our voters should be concerned about," said White. "We have a completely closed system, our elections results are paper-based, so after the election we are able to compare the paper record to the tabulated results to make sure that, again, the voting equipment did capture the results as the voter intended."
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has publicly said he fears the election will be rigged against him. The Elections Supervisor said that's just not true.
"I would invite that candidate to come to the elections department and learn about the quality assurance processes we have in place and also become educated about the security of the system," said White.
"We are very excited about this election," she said. "We are offering 14 full days of early voting which was not in the last presidential election cycle."
Primary election day is on August 30th. Florida is a closed Primary state. This means you must be a registered Republican or Democrat in order to vote. You can also be registered in one of the cities holding elections on that date.
Voters are reminded that they can go to any of the 20 sites throughout the Early Voting period, unlike Election Day when they must go to their assigned precinct.
Registered voters have the option of voting by mail, voting early or voting on election day.
Wait times for all 20 sites will be posted on the Elections Department's website and will be updated throughout the day, so that voters can make an informed decision as to when and where is most convenient for them.
In Broward, early voting runs from August 20th to August 28th.
