Gov. Charlie Crist on Tuesday extended early voting hours across Florida to 12 hours a day.
The executive order comes after record early voting turnout has contributed to long lines at polling sites.
Current Florida law allows for early voting to be conducted eight hours a day each weekday and for a total of eight hours during the weekends.
With Crist’s order, early voting sites will be open the rest of this week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. They will be open a total of 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday, the last day of early voting.
”It’s not a political decision,” Crist said moments after signing the order, which declares a state of emergency in Florida. “It’s a people decision.”
Reports are that early voting in North Fulton is taking approximately 4-5 hours. I talked with someone who voted in Cherokee yesterday around 5pm and the line was 5 minutes. It’s probably not a widespread problem, but I can see lots of folks in the metro Atlanta area driving right by when they see the long lines.
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took us 2.5 hours to vote yesterday at the Pryor St location in Fulton. Got there at 5:30 PM
Good for Gov. Crist.
Smart idea. Better to extend hours during this period than have a fiasco on the 4th.
Regardless of the winner, I do not think anyone wants to see election day craziness, people waiting in line for 12 hours, or a 2000 scenario.
I can see lots of folks in the metro Atlanta area driving right by when they see the long lines.
Well the ones who have jobs anyway. Advantage to Obama.
Of course when fewer people get to vote, the advantage goes to Republicans.
Chris,
After 8 years of the Bush economy there are a lot more people who are out of work.
Advantage Obama.
FYI:
It was 2 hours today at Hembree Park in Roswell. (Two more votes for Obama.)
We need to change the election dates to a Saturday and Sunday. Tuesday voting is a legacy of a agrarian economy before automobiles and electronic devices. It makes no sense today.
Why not vote by mail?
Seems to me to be the best option.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40032-2004Dec31.html
” I do not think anyone wants to see election day craziness, people waiting in line for 12 hours, or a 2000 scenario.”
Right. People got freakin’ election night parties to get to!
“After 8 years of the Bush economy there are a lot more people who are out of work.”
The last TWO of those years were in Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid’s hands.
BUT, D-guy, tell us, what job will YOU be able to have in the Obama-Nation?
“Right. People got freakin’ election night parties to get to!”
I haven’t decided which wake I’ll be attending.
Bill,
I don’t depend on the government for a job, or anything. Maybe you do, and that’s fine, but not me.
Anyway, the same tax policies Obama supports (and McCain supported before he starting running for President) produced the longest economic growth period in US history under Bill Clinton.
And it rings sort of hollow to call someone a “socialist” when Sara Palin was the Socialist Governor of the only Socialist state in the country – Alaska. In Alaska, Bill, “the people” own 99.9% of the land, and the state confiscates money from the oil companies, and sends “the people” a check every year to re-distribute that wealth to all Alaskans.
It is also telling that John McCain’s role model was Teddy Roosevelt – the President who “reclaimed” private land for national parks and forests, the President who created the national income tax and inheritance tax.
D-Guy,
I don’t know what laws are in place, whether at the state level or, perhaps, at the federal level that prevent wholesale ownership of Alaskan land by its inhabitants. Since YOU seem so learned in history and economics, why don’t you go research why Alaska is set-up differently?
One thing is for sure…if it is a state-based law, then unless you can point to me a time when the GOP held that state’s house, senate, and governorship, all at the same time, then Palin could only be accused of FOLLOWING THE LAW.
D-guy…you are one stupid-ass bitcher.
Bill, you are just an idiot.
“then Palin could only be accused of FOLLOWING THE LAW.”
That is tacit support for the law. So if she was just following the laws and saw no objection to them, why is she so upset now?
Rugby,
Not only did Palin not just follow the law and support the law, she CHANGED the law to confiscate more money from the oil companies so she could by support from constituents with a larger annual Socialist welfare check to “the people.”
There is only one true Socialist on the two major party tickets and her name is Sara Palin.
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