HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. -- Hundreds of Election Day poll workers began picking up electronic voting machines and other equipment on Saturday in preparations for what is expected to be a busy day at polling locations in Hillsborough County.
- 115,000 votes cast so far for the primary
- Election workers preparing for busy day at polls
- Early voting ends on Sunday in Hillsborough
The Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Office says as of Saturday, 115,000 mail-in and early votes had been cast, making this year's primary a bigger one than 2014.
Edyth McNair voted early this weekend, and says she noticed a different kind of energy at the polls this year.
“There seems to be a lot of excitement about coming out and voting this time," McNair said. "People actually believe their vote is going to make a difference this year.”
Security has been top-of-mind for elections workers in recent months, with rumors and threats of hacking and voter tampering.
Florida has had no credible election threats, however Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer says voting security has been a priority of his office.
Since 2016, Latimer says computer systems have been hardened to prevent cyber attacks and redundancies have been built in just in case a hack does occur.
"Our tabulation system is an air gap system. Stand alone. So our voter rolls are public records and you can request those at any time. But it's to try and undermine the confidence in the system is what this is a real effort trying to do. But then you get down to the final point that we use paper ballots, and you can't hack paper," Latimer said.
With 115,00 ballots already cast in the primary, Latimer says there hasn't been one reported security issue.
Early voting wraps up Sunday in Hillsborough County. Election Day polling locations open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.