LEE COUNTY — The primary election in Lee Country looked a lot different than it has in the past.
Face masks and plexiglass were at every polling place, and the majority of voters put their ballots in the mail.
We saw dozens of voters come to drop off their ballots at the Lee County Supervisor of elections, and we saw trucks from the post office unloading boxes of ballots as well. It was a much different sight than the last primary election just a few months ago in March.
“I just didn’t feel safe going to the polling, and wanted to make sure I could get my vote in… I waited a little too long to come in-person, but I’m here now," said Maya Senecharles, who we spoke to as she was dropping off her ballot.
Supervisor of Elections Tommy Doyle said, he saw this coming.
“It’s just too much of a risk. You know people are very, very wary and paranoid about catching COVID-19 and they try to stay away from people," said Doyle.
Doyle said COVID-19 didn’t just lead to more mail-in ballots, it also caused a lot of poll workers to stay home.
“We were down about 1,000 poll workers, and so we decided that we would consolidate, from 125 polling locations to 90," said Doyle.
But regardless, Doyle said the election went smoothly, and he said he wants to see even more people vote by mail in November.
“Request your vote by mail, and use it as an insurance policy in case something else happens, the pandemic gets worse. You have a resource to go back on and mail your vote in," said Doyle.
You can register to vote by mail all the way until 10 days before election day on November 3rd.
