Primarily good behavior: Supervisors of elections say no major conflicts reported

Supervisors of elections from Sarasota, Charlotte and DeSoto counties said early voting went smoothly ahead of Election Day — for the most part.

And turnout is already in the double-digits.

For people who have waited to vote on Election Day, they must go to their designated precinct.

Florida residents can only vote for candidates in their party, or in nonpartisan races as it is a closed primary state.

DESOTO COUNTYDeSoto County election office staff, for starters, said no conflicts have come up in their region.

Everyone has been well-behaved, according to staff, who say that fact does not surprise them.

On Monday, DeSoto County reported 1,342 early voters were cast from the county’s population of about 36,000. It has also received 754 ballots by mail, pushing its voter turnout to 10.79% going into Election Day.

DeSoto County Supervisor of Elections Mark F. Negley was unavailable for comment on Monday.

CHARLOTTE COUNTYCharlotte County reported 6,746 early voters as of Monday.

According to Charlotte County Supervisor of Elections Leah Valenti, there has been unkindness reported, but nothing that brought out law enforcement.

And what took place took place outside of the 150-foot solicitation zone.

“As a whole, I can say we have not had issues with any candidate coming into the 150-foot solicitation zone,” she said.

Matters outside of it are not in their control, she said.

But even so, the activities being done outside of such zones are not ones that would call for getting law enforcement involved.

Along with the 6,747 early voters, the county has received 18,552 ballots by mail and seven provisional ballots. That takes Charlotte County’s pre-Election Day turnout to 16.64%.

According to Charlotte County election staff, there have been some changes to locations due to outdated facilities and storm damage.

A list of the changed locations in Charlotte County can be found at tinyurl.com/4avakbtm.

SARASOTA COUNTYIn Sarasota County, 14,330 early votes came in.

Election office staff reported Sarasota County has 326,826 registered voters.

Staff said things have been calm for the most part.

There were some complaints about verbal disputes. Similarly to Charlotte County, none of that happened within an area managed by election staff.

“Early voting ended (Sunday) without too many issues,” Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Communications Director Paul Donnelly told The Daily Sun.

He said they did hear of some incidents.

“We did receive calls about arguments between solicitors at some of the early voting sites, but we are only responsible for keeping order within the 150-foot ‘no solicitation perimeter,’” Donnelly said. “Anything that happens outside of that perimeter is not our jurisdiction.”

There has been some changes to voting locations in Sarasota County as well, one of which was due to Hurricane Debby.

Changes include:

Precinct 535 needed an emergency relocation. Precinct 535 voters will go to the Jacaranda Library, 4143 Woodmere Park Blvd., Venice to vote.Precinct 203 has been relocated to Sarasota Municipal Auditorium, 801 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota.Precinct 215 has temporarily moved to First Presbyterian Church, 2050 Oak St., Sarasota.

Along with the 14,330 early voters, 56,278 people turned in their ballots by mail in Sarasota County. That gives Sarasota County a turnout going into Election Day as 21.6%.

Sarasota County also breaks its numbers down of those roughly 70,607 people so far by party and where they voted. So far, 30,048 Republicans have voted; 27,994 Democrats have voted and 9,566 people of “other” cast their ballots.