Too Late to Vote? Tardy Voter Refuses to Go Away

Scott Snyder of St. Petersburg cast his ballot on Election Day. But whether his vote is counted remains to be seen.

Snyder, a 48-year-old UPS driver, sprinted to his precinct at Sunken Gardens at 7:04 p.m. Tuesday – just four minutes after polls had officially closed in Florida.

Although there were about a dozen people still waiting their turn in line, Snyder was told by a poll worker he would have to leave. He had arrived too late to vote. Those are the rules.

Snyder started to walk away and then stopped. “I’m not getting out of this line,” said Sndyer. “I already came here once today and couldn't stay because the wait was too long. I’m a citizen, and I’m exercising my right to vote.”

As the Pinellas County poll worker made a hasty call to her supervisor about how to handle the situation, Snyder explained to a reporter that this was his second trip to the polling place for Precincts 134 and 142 in St. Petersburg.

The first time he arrived a line stretched about 75 yards to 4^th Street North.

“I had to make the choice: Not vote and make it to work, or wait in line to vote and not get to work,” he said. “I had to work.”

So when Snyder quietly took his place in line at 7:04 Tuesday night after getting off work, he held out hope he would be admitted to the polling area.

 “The way things are going in this country, it is imperative that everyone gets out and votes.,” he said. “You can’t have an opinion unless you vote. Your voice needs to be heard.”

 The poll worker returned to let the final half-dozen people inside to vote. Snyder was stopped at the door. He was told he could go in as well, but he would have to cast a “provisional ballot,” meaning his ballot will not go through the scanner and be counted – at least for now.

Instead it will be put aside in a separate box to be examined by a canvassing board, which will “determine the eligibility of the ballot,” said Paula Engel, an election aide at the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Office.

The canvassing board will make the determination whether the vote counts.

“The board goes by the law and the circumstance,” Engel said. Typically, a voter is required to use a provisional ballot if he or she does not have proper identification to show at the polls.

That was not Snyder’s situation Tuesday night. He just arrived four minutes late.

“I’ve voted at this precinct before,” Snyder said. “It just took much longer this time around. I don’t recall the lines and wait being this bad.”

Engel said that Snyder will be contacted in the near future and informed whether his vote was counted in the 2012 elections.

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