All eyes on Florida's primary
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --
Americans still don't know who will take on President Barack Obama this November, but Florida may have the answer. "Definitely, all eyes are on Florida," said early voters, Lawrence and Renee Kurzius. Florida's Republican presidential primary is Tuesday, but Lawrence and Renee didn't want to wait. "It just makes me feel like the vote matters even more."
And they aren't the only ones. So far in Duval county more than 27,000 votes were cast early as of Saturday. "No matter who you are supporting you feel like your candidate has a shot," said Duval County's Supervisor of Elections, Jerry Holland.
"It's wide open. So I think in many ways it keeps it very competitive with a lot of people coming out."
This is the first early voting period since the state's election laws changed last year. That gave early voters a little more than one week long instead of 14 days to cast their ballots.
"I think what drives numbers a lot is not necessarily the number of days, but really the race itself," said Holland.
Election workers expect about 40-percent of Republicans in Duval County to vote by Tuesday. But Lawrence and Renee says it should be 100-percent.
"Every single vote counts more than ever. And if you want to see a change, a change for the better than you need to go out and vote." And they hope everyone who can vote will.
If you didn't get the chance to take part in early voting, you will have to wait until the Florida primary January 31st. It's only open to registered Republicans, except in Neptune Beach which has a local referendum on the ballot.
Voters using absentee ballots need to have to them mailed into the Supervisor of Elections office by 7:00 pm Tuesday.
Copyright 2012 High Plains Broadcasting LLC All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
