By BARRY FOSTER
News-Sun correspondent
SEBRING -- Election Day started early at the Highlands County Supervisor of Elections office with equipment and poll workers fanning out to 25 different locations around the county.
Workers at the office said there was an initial rush at many of the locations as residents wanted to cast their votes on their way to work.
By mid-morning, however, the polls had settled down significantly, with many reports of no lines and residents able to fill out their lengthy ballots with relative ease. Some of the slowdown may have been attributable to a weather system that moved through the county during the morning, causing cooler temperatures and a few rain showers.
By 1 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, the supervisor's office had issued statistics showing that 29,224 ballots had been cast. The running total was 47 percent of the 62,076 registered voters in Highlands County.
That number belied the actual vote totals, inasmuch as it represented only the county's three largest precincts, which are connected to the supervisors office electronically. Also factored into that number were all the early voters, absentee and over-the-counter votes at the Highlands County Government Center offices.
By the close Saturday, 16,989 residents had cast their ballots at locations in Avon Park, Sebring and Lake Placid.
Elections workers said that as of noon there had been no incidents at the polls. They also noted a brisk business of what were termed "over-the-counter absentees," with residents showing up at the supervisor's office to cast their ballots at machines that were set up there for public convenience.
Members of the canvassing board spent most of the day Tuesday getting ready for the evening's count of ballots.
They reportedly wrapped up processing absentee and early voting ballots on Monday to be ready for counting after the polls closed.
More than 700 absentee ballots had to be duplicated for counting due to over-votes in some of the races.
This was the last official election for Highlands County Supervisor of Elections Joe Campbell, who announced he would not seek re-election after four terms as the elections chief here.
Wednesday, November 07, 2012 - www.newssun.com/110712-elections