- More than 39% of eligible voters in Leon County have cast their ballots one week before Election Day.
- One of the busiest locations has been the Northeast Branch Library.
- Watch the video to hear why voters we spoke with said it was necessary to get their votes in early.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
One week out from Election Day, more than 76,000 have cast their ballots and turnout is outpacing the primaries in Leon County.
Streams of people came to the Bruce J Host Northeast Branch Library to early vote.
One of the over 11,000 people that came here to cast their ballot: Adam Cohen.
"You don't know what's going to happen on Election Day," Cohen said. "There could be a health issue or an accident, God forbid, or something just comes up."
His logic is why many of the more than 22% of Leon County voters came out to early voting locations.
25% of early voters came to the Northeast Branch Library.
Those numbers are not counting the nearly 16% of people who already turned in their vote-by-mail ballot.
Over at the Lake Jackson Community Center, voter Novella Dandridge said it boils down to...
"I don't want to be in the line, in the commotion," Dandridge said.
President of the Tallahassee League of Women Voters Trish Neely said that's the main reason for a lot of neighbors.
"People just want to get a head start," Neely said. "They want to get there before there are mass people."
The turnout shows just that.
Turnout so far has surpassed the primary election by 8 points.
The number of early voters Tuesday was already at 68% of how many came out for all of the early voting in 2020.
But Neely said there are more votes to come.
"There's a lot of people that love the excitement, the hubbub of being at your precinct on election day and they're going to be there, show up and do that," Neely said.
Cohen said he cast his ballot early to make sure he could do it when he had the chance.
"I had the time today to vote, there was a place to vote and I wanted to make sure my vote counted," Cohen said.
To track turnout, go to theLeon County Supervisor of Elections website.
