Miami-area voters wait long hours in tropical heat to cast votes
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012: A voter in the south Miami area appears to need medical assistance after waiting in 80-degree temperatures to vote. (Fox News)
Voters in South Florida waited for more than four hours Tuesday in nearly 90-degree heat at some polling sites, the result of a big turnout, equipment malfunctions and apparently poor planning.
One of the voters, who cast a ballot in south Miami, said a family member had waited nearly seven hours in Hialeah – just north of the city.
George Rodriguez, a technician at Univision, told The Miami Herald he eventually filled out an absentee ballot after waiting nearly three hours and that his son waited for about four hours.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Voters who get absentee ballots must return them by 7 p.m.
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“This is a travesty for the working class,” Rodriguez said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Pictures sent to Fox News show at least one waiting voter being treated in the Miami area for what a witness said appeared to be a heat-related medical condition.
The witness, who asked not to be identified, said another problem is a five-page ballot that is “as complicated as an SAT.”
A spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department said late Tuesday afternoon that the agency had no information about service calls to polling stations and would not have that until at least Wednesday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Miami Herald also reported a few malfunctioning ballot scanners, and location problems at precincts around South Florida are leaving some voters uneasy. But spokeswomen with elections departments in Miami-Dade and Broward counties reported no major problems.