NORTH PORT, Fla. — Voters in places hit by Hurricane Ian made it out to the polls despite changes to some precincts.
Sarasota County's Supervisor of Elections said they had to combine three North Port voting precincts into the North Port branch of the supervisor's office. But despite the more than normal amount of voters who were lined up, many said the wait was not too long.
"It wasn't that bad, really, but we got to it and everything is fine," Cary Ringle of North Port said.
Ringle is a retired electrician whose voting precinct was changed due to damage from the hurricane.
"I just tried to figure things out because I knew there was going to be a wait," he said.
"My son-in-law did the waiting because I can't walk very well but I don't think it was too bad," Dorothy, a person waiting at the polls, said.
Dorothy recently moved in with her daughter in North Port from Chicago and had never experienced a hurricane.
"This was my first time and I didn't know what to expect, but my daughter and I were sitting by the window just watching those trees and winds going back and forth and the winds howling. It was quite an experience," she said.
Despite the many people being displaced from their homes due to damages, election officials said the county's voter turnout was higher than expected.
"We've had around 49% turnout overall in the county so approaching 50% turned out pretty rapidly," Sarasota Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner said.
At 7 p.m., according to the unofficial voter tracking chart on the county's Supervisor of Elections website, 68,755 people had cast their ballot on Election Day, representing 31.5% of 353,493 registered voters in the county. The chart also showed a projected overall turnout of 61.69% with 94,151 vote-by-mail ballots, 55,167 early voters and a total of 218,073 ballots cast so far.
Turner said things had gone smoothly outside of a brief power interruption to some voting machines at precinct 109 at New Life Lutheran Church on Fruitville Road. The machines, which also run on battery, had been plugged into an undetected faulty outlet damaged during the hurricane.
"We just asked that people be patient with us wherever they're voting on Election Day and that we're part of this community also. We live here and work here, this is our job and we are trying to do the best we can for the voters of Sarasota County and we appreciate their patience and patriotic spirit out there today, anxious to make their voices heard," Turner said.
For the many who waited in line to cast their votes and those who walked out after casting theirs, exercising their right to vote was their way of speaking out.
"I just want our issues to be heard, such as inflation and immigration," Barbara Alman of North Port said
As votes return to the Supervisor of Elections office for the final tally, every single voter holds one prayer.
"That the people I voted for win, naturally," Ringle said.