Election Day Tips From SOE Lori Scott

polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 4 for the 2014 general elections.

In general, the peak voting times are 7 a.m. to 8 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

If possible, voters are encouraged to vote at a time other than these peak voting periods. All eligible voters in line at their polling place at 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote, regardless of the length of the line.

If you are not sure whether you are registered to vote or eligible to vote in a particular election, contact the Elections Office before Election Day or use the online voter status verification form.

Please note: you must be registered to vote in Florida 29 days before an election to be eligible to vote in that election.

Find out where you are assigned to vote before Election Day. Your voter information card has the name and address of your polling place, or you can obtain it by using the online voter status verification form. Be sure that you know how to get to your polling place; if you don’t, contact the Elections Office for directions (before Election Day, if possible).

Per Florida Statute 101.045, you must vote in the precinct of your legal residence. We recommend that you change your address with us prior to Election Day.

However, you may change your address at the polls on Election Day provided:

• You are moving from one address to another within Brevard County or
• You are moving from another county within Florida, and you are an active uniformed services voter, or a member of his or her family

If you do not meet one of these criteria, you will be permitted to vote a provisional ballot.

To be allowed to vote you must show one of the following forms of identification, which must contain the voter’s name and photograph and must not be expired:

• Florida driver’s license
• Florida identification card issued by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
• United States passport
• Debit or credit card
• Military identification
• Student identification
• Retirement center identification
• Neighborhood association identification
• Public assistance identification

NOTE: Employee ID card and buyer’s club ID are no longer acceptable forms of identification.

If the identification does not contain the signature of the voter, an additional identification that provides the voter’s signature is required.

Voters who register by mail and who have no Florida driver’s license, Florida identification card or social security number must show identification the first time they vote or they will be required to vote by provisional ballot.

Acceptable forms of identification, as well as categories of voters exempt from this requirement, are listed on the identification requirements for mail registrants page. Any voter who does not have a photo ID will be required to vote by provisional ballot.

The identification which is required and checked at the polls is used solely to confirm the voter’s identity, not to verify the voter’s identification number or address. The photograph on the identification is compared to the person standing before the poll worker and the signature on the card is compared to the voter’s signature on the precinct roster.

If you are voting at a school, you should avoid voting at the arrival and dismissal time for the school.

Use the sample ballot mailed to you by the elections office or available on this web site to decide how you want to vote before you go into the polling place. This is particularly helpful when there are many offices to be voted on as well as a large number of constitutional amendments and/or referendums on the ballot (this is typical in the November elections in even numbered years). You may bring marked sample ballots into the polls to help you remember how you want to vote; however, you may not leave them in the voting booths or show them to other voters in line.

While they are in their polling place voting, voters may wear t-shirts, buttons, hats, etc., which express their political preferences as long as they are not actively campaigning (see Division of Elections Opinion 82-13)

Please feel free to ask the pollworkers questions about the polling place setup and voting equipment. If you have questions that they are unable to answer, please contact the Elections Office (after Election Day, if possible).

If you need assistance in voting due to blindness, disability or inability to read or write, you may have someone of your choice (or two pollworkers) assist you in voting. You may not have your employer, an agent of your employer, or an officer or agent of your union assist you in voting [Section 101.051(1), Florida Statutes]. In addition, accessible touchscreen voting machines are available at each polling place.

If you do not vote for any candidates or vote for more candidates than are allowed in a contest, only that contest will be affected; any other contests in which the allowed number of candidates are selected will be counted.

If you make a mistake in voting, tell the clerk in charge of polling place, give him or her your spoiled ballot, and you will be issued a replacement ballot. Your spoiled ballot will be sealed and no one will be allowed to see it. You may not receive more than two replacement ballots per election.

If you have requested and received an absentee ballot, but then decide to vote at your polling place instead, take the absentee ballot with you to the polling place, give it to the pollworkers, and you will be allowed to vote at the polling place. If you requested an absentee ballot but lost it or never received it, you will be allowed to vote a regular ballot if the pollworkers can contact the elections office and verify that you have not already voted; otherwise you will have to vote by provisional ballot.

If you suspect that you have encountered voter fraud, you can report it to the Division of Elections at 877-868-3737 (this is a toll free number). More information on voter fraud can be found on the Division of Elections web site at Election.dos.state.fl.us/fraud

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