WSNN – After months of campaigning and political ads, Election Day 2022 is upon us.
“We’ve got great poll workers, everybody is on site and we’re ready to go,” said Manatee County Supervisor of Elections, Michael Bennett.
Polling locations across Manatee and Sarasota Counties opened at 7AM this morning for the 2022 Midterm Election Day.
“There’s been so much bad press, bad dialogue, disagreements, verbal disagreements about the whole voting process and people are doubting so we want this election to go extremely smoothly and maybe we can get the dialogue back to how well Florida was run vs people having suspicions of it,” said Bennett.
While many have already voted early or by mail prior to Election Day, Bennett says you should expect lines at the polls
“Somewhere around 5oclock when people are getting off work, commuting and making their way home, you’re always going to have lines but the polls are open ‘til 7oclock tonight,” said Bennett.
If you still have a vote-by-mail ballot and you want to vote by mail you have to return the ballot to a Supervisor of Elections office
“Post marks do not work for domestic vote-by-mail ballots those have to be back to the Supervisor of Elections by 7PM on election night to count that ballot by law,” said Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections, Ron Turner.
Turner says voters are allowed to bring Sample Ballots for reference.
“Or even if they made notes on a little piece of paper they can take it into the voting booth today to help ease and make this process more efficient and faster for them,” said Turner.
Overall, the Supervisor of Elections in each county are expecting a large voter turnout
“It’s important for your voice to be heard, we just want to help facilitate that process and we ask voters just to be patient with us and we’ll make sure everyone gets to cast a ballot that hasn’t already done so today before the polls close,” said Turner.
Don’t forget to bring a photo, signature ID AND patience.
Polling locations are open from 7AM to 7PM in both Sarasota and Manatee County.
AND remember you must vote at your assigned polling location on Election Day, for more information on how to find your polling location you can visit Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections website here OR Manatee Counties Supervisor of Elections website here.
