Voter turnout is very heavy in southwest Florida as some people are waiting in line for more than two hours. Vicki Collins with the Lee County Elections Office blames the extremely long ballot and the unusual amount of people showing up to vote.

“These people don’t show up at other elections to be frank because look at our gubernatorial election it surely is not this amount of people,” she said. “And so the people are coming out to vote and they don’t expect to have to wait in line. The lines are quite lengthy. We’re happy to say that.” 

Collins said the other problem is the limited amount of scanners available. They have 37 precincts that have more than 3500 people scheduled to vote in them. Those precincts have 2 scanners. The rest of Lee County’s precincts have only 1 scanner because they have fewer than 3500 people scheduled to vote there.

“So we don’t have any other resources at this time,” said Collins. “So we’re just asking for people to be patient. We’ll get you through this election. And to also be aware when you’re scanning the pages to allow the first page to go through not to rush the process,” she said.

The scanners they have that they’re not using are set aside just in case any go down.  Collins said they’re working within the resources and the budget they have.