WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – WPTV News checked in with each of the five election supervisors’ offices in our broadcast area to get a sense of how the first week of early voting for the 2024 general election went.

They told WPTV News journalist Victor Jorges that they were pleased with the turnout in the first few days of early voting and mail-in ballots coming in.

They expect voter turnout to be higher than the 2020 general election, potentially breaking records in several counties.

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In Palm Beach County, elections director Wendy Sartory Link said many people also use the county’s appointment system. She said at least 40,000 people have used this tool.

“We’re really excited about it,” said Sartory Link. “The system is reportedly working very, very well.”

In St. Lucie County, there were twice as many votes in the first few days of this year’s early voting period as in the same period last election.

Supervisor Gertrude Walker wrote to Jorges and said: “For comparison, during the 2020 general election we had a total of 14,516 votes cast after the first three days of early voting. However, a total of 29,357 votes were cast in the 2024 general election through early voting after the first 3 days! Currently, the total number of votes cast in Early Voting is 33,901, exceeding the total number of Votes By Mail.”

In Martin County, elections director Vicki Davis said, “We had a very high turnout the first week of early voting. If we compare our numbers to overall early voting turnout in 2020, they are comparable. In 2020, we had 84% voter turnout.” Overall turnout: 41% of our voters cast their ballots in early voting.”

Davis said they plan to either meet or exceed that percentage.

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Early voting locations in Indian River County may experience wait times of 15 to 30 minutes. With an average of 30 minutes, the waiting time is longest in the main library branch.

In Okeechobee County, elections director Melissa Arnold said things were “fantastic” and they were seeing a record number of voters who cast their ballots early.

In Palm Beach County, where 37% of voters, or about 337,000 people, have already cast their ballots early, misinformation on social media has been a major warning sign for the upcoming election, Link said.

“We have to constantly fight each other, be it from candidates, parties or groups. A lot of this is actually coming from abroad on social media, where there is a lot of misinformation and then it gets amplified,” Sartory Link said.

She said the best way to get around this misinformation is to pull the information from each supervisor’s website so it comes directly from their office. They ask that you call them if you see anything suspicious online so they can investigate.

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Jorges also asked about website outages his office experienced early last week during the first days of early voting. Sartory Link said it only affects the portal the public can see, but not the votes themselves.

“There is no connection whatsoever between the tabulation of a person’s votes and the website,” Sartory Link said.

She also told Jorges that they have a backup plan in case the system fails again.