Orange County residents kicked off primary voting in central Florida Monday. Hundreds are stopping by the polls and thousands have mailed in votes. 85-year-old Margaret McPherson joined a consistent trickle of residents at the Orange County Supervisors of Elections Office, casting their paper ballots for judges, state representatives, school board members, and others.
“I like to come before a lot of people come in,” she said.
19-year-old Nicolas Dante Frevola dropped by the polls while home for a few days before starting the school year in Tallahassee. He called this a critical election for his generation and others.
"Nowadays in the world, in the country that we live in, you know, a lot of people don’t have that free speech, and I feel like if you can vote, it’s your signature of free speech and it’s your way of exercising your rights as a United States citizen and to follow the Constitution the right way."
Elections supervisor Bill Cowles has opened seventeen early voting sites ahead of the August 30th primary. Those sites will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. up until the Sunday before the race.
He said he wanted to give residents as many days as possible to vote.
“Because of the redistricting and all of the changes, we added new precincts. We added new early voting sites for this election so that voters are prepared when we get to the big dance on November 8th.”
With it being the first day of school, Cowles was not expecting a high turnout on the first day of early voting. He expects numbers to pick up toward the deadline for cast ballots.
More than 27,000 Orange County residents have mailed in ballots. The county is paying for postage and taking ballots at voting sites.