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Palm Beach County reports few problems on Primary Day

About 100 poll workers didn't come to work, elections supervisor said
Posted at 4:21 PM, Aug 18, 2020
and last updated 2020-08-18 18:13:56-04

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It is Primary Day in Florida for local and municipal races.

It's also the last run-through for county elections offices before the November election.

According to the Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link, the August primary is going reasonably smoothly.

SPECIAL COVERAGE: Elections 2020

The two significant issues on Tuesday were mail-in ballots and poll workers.

Poll workers failing to show up in March was a major issue over fears of the coronavirus.

However, Sartory Link said Tuesday that only about 100 poll workers did not come to work. Sartory Link said they were prepared for it with extra people ready to step in.

"We had a line of poll workers getting temperature taken and having them fill out their questionnaires, and while we did have some cancellations this morning, we were also able to replace everybody. So, we had fully-staffed polling locations, and everything opened," Sartory Link said.

As for mail-in ballots, the supervisor of elections said 176,000 had been returned by 4 p.m. About another 170,000 ballots have not been returned. The elections office will receive multiple deliveries Tuesday from the post office.

"We were really trying to push for people yesterday and today to drop off their ballots, and we've had a huge increase in drop-offs because we didn’t want people to take the chance and perhaps have a delay. We don’t want ballots tomorrow,” Sartory Link said.

People can also drop off the ballots in person at the supervisor of elections office on Military Trail until 7 p.m. when the polls close.