Early voting wrapping up ahead of Election Day

People were out casting their votes on Monday, the last day of early voting before Election Day.

Lines here for early voting have been picked up throughout the afternoon at Fort Myers Regional Library on Monday as many people say they’re here hoping to avoid even bigger lines ahead of Election Day.

Jackie Lou said she’s voted in every election since she was 18. Never before did she have to cast a ballot in the wake of a hurricane.

“I wanted to get here early because I’m going to be really busy tomorrow. And I didn’t want to like freak out because voting is so important,” said Lou.

Because of the damage done by Ian, people who hope to vote on Election Day cannot go to their traditional precincts. A large majority of those 99 polling places are not available.

Instead, the Lee County supervisor of elections created 12 voting locations that are open to all registered Lee County voters.

“They can go to anyone they want the closest they want, they can go one that doesn’t have lines, if there’s lines as the one they show up. It doesn’t matter,” said Tommy Doyle, the Lee County supervisor of elections.

These locations can be found online here. The website will also have a wait times feature, so you know how long the lines are.

“I’m anticipating some long lines tomorrow, if it all depends on how many people turn out the day and how much mail comes back today. But I think it’ll be the biggest day of the voting period. And so I think there will be some lines,” Doyle said.

Lou hopes there will be a big turnout because she believes voting is that important. “If somebody wins by 10 votes, your vote could have mattered. Somebody wins by one, it could matter. Every vote matters.”

Early voting concludes Monday at 6 p.m. On Tuesday, people can begin voting as early as 7 a.m.