Broward and Miami-Dade elections officials are reorganizing hundreds of voting precincts with the goal of reducing the long lines of voters that plagued last November’s presidential elections and embarrassed the state. In Broward, Brenda Snipes, the county supervisor of elections, started the process in June, aiming to complete the work by September — more than a year in advance of the 2014 gubernatorial election. In Miami-Dade, the county’s elections office expects to present a new precinct plan to county commissioners in early 2014, spokeswoman Christina White said. In Broward, Snipes is an elected officer, so county commissioners don’t have to approve her plan and she has no immediate plans for public input. Miami-Dade had planned on reorganizing its precincts before the 2012 election, but delayed it out of a concern that voters assigned to new precincts would be confused on a presidential election day. Instead, voters at many precincts stood in line for several hours to wait to vote. Both counties, which have more than 1 million voters each, have about 800 precincts. Some are combined in the same location.
The Miami Herald asked to interview Snipes but was told she was out of the office this week. Her spokeswoman, Mary Cooney, said the office’s main goal is to find a solution for the large precincts and possibly combine small ones, “but no ranges have been targeted yet.”
Miami-Dade aims to have a 2,500-voter per precinct limit. In 2012, about 19 percent of Miami-Dade county’s precincts exceeded that number with the largest — South Kendall Community Church in Country Walk — at 8,303.
Broward has about two dozen precincts with more than 3,000 voters. Its most crowded precincts are located in the western part of the county. Coupled with the lengthy ballot and other factors, the overflowing precincts created some long lines in November even though a large portion of voters now vote by absentee or early voting rather than on election day.
The process of re-drawing precincts and redistributing voters isn’t easy: It involves scrutinizing voter registration and turnout statistics in hundreds of precincts with the goal of reducing voter lines.
Tens of thousands of voters in Broward and Miami-Dade could be assigned to vote at a different precinct location than in the past. However, voters remain in their same districts and the review process won’t change who represents voters in Congress, the Legislature or local offices.
Full Article: Counties reorganize precincts to help reduce voting lines – Florida – MiamiHerald.com.