Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent says a mechanical glitch delayed attendees of a Kendrick Meek rally hoping to cast early votes yesterday.
The Meek event was held at a recreation center in Sarasota’s largely African-American neighborhood of Newtown at 3 p.m. After Meek’s appearance, attendees were encouraged to walk to the nearby North Sarasota Library, an early vote location. But before they could cast their ballots, Dent says the library lost “connectivity” with her office, meaning poll workers couldn’t look up voters’ information to provide them with their correct precinct ballots. #
Dent’s office replaced the busted switch responsible for the glitch, but there was a delay. “They were inconvenienced,” Dent says, adding that as far as she knows, “everybody was able to vote” by 4:50 p.m., 40 minutes after the original failure. #
Dent says that, since the location opened for early voting this morning, her office hasn’t heard of any additional problems. #
We reached out to the Meek campaign for comment on the issue. #
Were you at the early vote location? Email me details on what happened. #
