Long Lines Reported On Last Day Of Early Voting

TAMPA BAY, FL — Those living in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties have about four hours left before early voting ends at 7 p.m. Sunday.

But if you plan to head to an early-voting sites, expect long lines.

Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer says last-minute early voters have been lining up all day at the 26 early-voting sites in the county. He said voters have also been taking advantage of the vote-by-mail drop boxes at the early-voting locations.

As of 3 p.m. Sunday, 585,299 voters have cast their ballots out of a total of 934,356 eligible voters. Of those 264,773 voted early and 320,526 voted by mail. That's a turnout of 62.64 percent.

To find wait times at Hillsborough early-voting sites, click here.

As of Sunday, 323,168 Pinellas County residents had voted by mail and 102,239 residents had cast their ballots early for a total of 425,407 votes cast prior to Election Day out of a total of 715,950 registered voters in Pinellas County. That's 59.41 percent of the registered voters.

There are 15- to 30-minute waits at all six Pinellas County early-voting sites. Click here to check wait times before heading out.

Early-voting locations can be found here for Hillsborough County and here for Pinellas County.

Pasco County's early voting ended Saturday. Residents can still submit vote-by-mail ballots or vote at their precinct on Election Day.

As of Sunday, 120,040 Pasco residents had voted by mail and 114,178 voted early for a total of 234,218 votes cast so far. Pasco County has 395,479 registered voters. That means 59.48 percent of residents who are eligible have voted.

Vote-by-mail ballots must be received at the supervisor of elections offices by 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. By law, vote-by-mail ballots cannot be accepted at the general election voting precincts on Election Day.

Since it's too late to send it by mail, it can be dropped off at the four elections offices in Hillsborough County. The Robert L. Gilder Elections Service Center at 2614 N. Falkenburg Road also has a 24-hour-monitored secure drop box outside the main door that will be open until 7 p.m. Election Day.

In Pinellas County, vote-by-mail ballots can be dropped off at the three county elections offices.

If you're heading to the polls on Election Day, you must vote at the precinct assigned to your mailing address.

Click here for precincts in Hillsborough County.

Click here for precincts in Pinellas County.

In-person voting is expected to take longer than usual because of coronavirus health and safety precautions, which include limiting the number of people inside the polling place and continuous cleaning of equipment and surfaces. All poll workers will wear masks and pass a temperature check before starting work.

Other planned health and safety measures for in-person voting include providing voters with single-use stylus pens and secrecy cover sheets, and minimizing touch points for voters and poll workers.

Longtime Palm Harbor Patch columnist Tim Bryce, author and radio commentator for WZIG-FM (104.1) in Palm Harbor did a breakdown of votes by party and reported that Republican voters continue to surge while Democrats wane in the battleground state.

"For the first time in this election (and as expected), the percentage of registered Republican voters (66.05 percent) eclipsed Democrats (65.54 percent)," said Bryce. "And as of today, Tampa Bay flipped over to the Republicans (also expected)."

Chart by Tim Bryce