Florida voters wait in long lines on 1st day of early voting

Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Early voting began in the battleground state of Florida on Monday as long lines queued at numerous locations and a glitch shut down one county's website for several hours.

Lines were reported in Miami and Fort Lauderdale in southeastern Florida and the Tampa-St. Petersburg area further north.

Some residents in Delray Beach, in Palm Beach County, waited in line early Monday for more than two hours in heavy rain.

Some voters said they preferred waiting in line to mailing a ballot because they didn't want to take the chance it might not be counted. However, Florida is one of several states that allows all mail voters to track their ballot's status online to ensure it's been counted.

Residents in Palm Beach County wait in line in heavy rain Monday to cast their ballots early for the 2020 presidential election, at the Hagen Ranch Road Library in Delray Beach, Fla. Photo by Gary I Rothstein/UPI

Dozens of voters stood in line a Miami-Dade County library on Monday. Some waited for nearly an hour at locations to cast their ballot in what many Americans consider the most important election yet.

Voting in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties appeared to go smoothly and long lines moved quickly. Some voters showed up more than two hours before the polls opened at 7 a.m.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris held campaign events in Jacksonville and Orlando on Monday. Presidential nominees Donald Trump and Joe Biden have made multiple trips to the state in recent weeks, hoping to win its 29 electoral votes next month.

The elections website in Orange County, which encompasses Orlando, was down for a short time on Monday and visitors could not access the site.

The county supervisor said a glitch, not a cyberattack or visitor overload, caused the outage.