Broward Ballot Check Glitch Delays Voting at Opening; Officials Say It Was Fixed Within Minutes

A ballot-checking glitch slowed voting across Broward County, Florida, when polls opened Tuesday, but election officials said the problem was fixed within minutes.

Broward Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott said a new barcode feature meant to confirm that each voter gets the right ballot wrongly flagged ballots at the 7 a.m. opening, the Miami Herald reported.

The feature was first used in the August primary for precincts split by redistricting. Scott said the problem caused delays of about 20 minutes countywide and was fixed by about 7:20 a.m.

“Nobody voted on the wrong ballot,” Scott said, according to the Herald.

Some voters left their polling places during the delay. Scott said he did not know how many and urged anyone who walked away to come back before polls close at 7 p.m.

County officials described the problem as a systemwide issue that affected polling sites for 10 to 15 minutes before it was resolved, WSVN reported. Officials said sites were running smoothly afterward.

Posts on X claiming that Broward’s system was “totally down” or not working spread widely Tuesday morning. Broward was one of the top U.S. trends on X, with about 1,200 posts an hour on voting problems there by mid-morning.

Those claims of an ongoing outage are not supported by the county’s statements. Officials said the glitch was limited to the opening minutes.

Flooding Moves Two Precincts

Flooding forced two polling places to move. Precinct T18 moved from the Paradise Village Clubhouse in Davie to Tree Tops Park, and Precinct E10 moved from the Sartory Senior Center to Mullins Hall in Coral Springs, the Herald reported.

About 45,000 Broward voters had cast ballots Tuesday by mid-morning, according to the Herald. County officials told WSVN that more than 450,000 had voted before Election Day and that they expected another 225,000 on Tuesday.

In neighboring Miami-Dade, Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia said more than 530,000 people had already voted.

Anyone in line by 7 p.m. will still be allowed to vote. Florida voters must bring valid identification with a signature, and anyone holding a mail ballot is advised to drop it off at a designated site in their home county.

Broward, the state’s second-most populous county, is a Democratic stronghold, and its turnout matters in statewide races.

Floridians are choosing a governor between Republican Rep. Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly, a former congressman. Republican Sen. Ashley Moody faces Democrat Angie Nixon for the Senate seat.

In the 27th Congressional District, Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar faces Democrat Eliott Rodriguez.

Voters with questions about their polling place can check the Broward Supervisor of Elections website. Most of Florida’s polls close at 7 p.m. Eastern time, and the western Panhandle closes an hour later. Statewide returns will post on the Florida Division of Elections results site.

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