Florida Department of State

Florida Department of State
Kurt S. Browning
Secretary of State

ELECTION NIGHT RETURNS

In preparation for the Presidential Preference Primary Election in Florida, the Department of State is providing the following information for news media planning purposes.

MEDIA AVAILABILITIES

Florida Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning will hold several media availabilities throughout Election Day. The first media avail will be at 9:30 a.m. after polls have opened across the state.

Additional media availabilities will be scheduled in the mid afternoon and after the polls close with times TBD.

All media availabilities will be held in the lobby of the R.A. Gray Building. The R.A. Gray Building is located in Tallahassee at:

Florida Department of State
R.A.Gray Building
500 South Bronough Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399

The media contact for all election related questions is:

Jennifer Davis
850.245.6527 – office
850.528.8992 – cell
jkdavis@dos.state.fl.us

ELECTION NIGHT RETURNS

Election night returns will be updated on the Florida Department of State, Division of Elections website. Returns will be uploaded from the 67 Florida counties from three areas, absentee ballot results, early voting results and Election Day precinct reports.

The election results will be posted on the following website which is also accessible from the Division of Elections homepage.

http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/

From the election night results page, total returns by candidate are displayed from the U.S. President link under the respective political party headers. Once U.S. Presidentis selected, individual county results can be viewed by selecting the U.S. President hyperlink above the totals chart.

The reporting status link at the top left of the page will display the type of election result (absentee ballot, early voting site or precinct day) each county has reported.

Space will be provided for media to file stories and report from the R.A. Gray Building. Hard network lines and wireless internet connections will be available as well as auditorium. Returns will be scrolling on several monitors in the auditorium and in the lobby of the R.A. Gray Building.

Polls open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 7:00 p.m. EST. Several Florida counties are located in the Central Time Zone and open polls at 8:00 a.m. and close at 8:00 p.m. EST.

The following counties are located in the Central Time Zone:

• Bay
• Calhoun
• Escambia
• Gulf (portion of)
• Holmes
• Jackson
• Okaloosa
• Santa Rosa
• Walton
• Washington

FLORIDA FACTS

• Florida is a closed primary state
• Over 391,000 ballots have been cast at an early voting site
• Over 208,000 Absentee Ballots have been cast
• There are over 6,913 Election Day Precincts
• 10, 203,112 Registered Voters
• 3,825,727 Registered Republicans
• 4,137,067 Registered Democrats
• 2,240,318 Registered Other
• There were 666,489 Newly Registered Voters in Florida in 2007
• 187,909 Registered Republicans
• 256,621 Registered Democrats

The following 14 Florida Counties will use electronic touchscreens for the Presidential Preference Primary Election:

• Lee
• Collier
• Charlotte
• Broward
• Palm Beach
• Miami-Dade
• Indian River
• Martin
• Hillsborough
• Pinellas
• Pasco
• Lake
• Sumter
• Nassau

The remaining counties will be using an optical scan voting system.

NOTE: Any election after July 1, 2008 must be conducted using optical scan voting equipment and counties will complete the conversion after the Presidential Preference Primary.