Residents in 18 cities have ways to vote early.
Sun-Sentinel. February 24, 2005. By Anthony Man, Staff writer

It's not called early voting, but residents of the 18 cities, towns and villages in Palm Beach County with elections on March 8 can vote early.

Charmaine Kelly, chief deputy supervisor of elections, acknowledged it's confusing.
 
People are allowed to vote in person at any of the three Supervisor of Elections Office locations between now and Election Day.

"They have the option of voting prior to Election Day and voting by either paper or voting unit [electronic machine]," Kelly said. "It's kind of close, but it's not early voting."

Early voting has specific statutory requirements in terms of hours, locations and days. What's being offered is more like absentee voting. People can go to one of the offices and get a paper absentee ballot and complete it right there. Or they can vote on one of the electronic voting machines.

Hours this week are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Hours next week are 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays. The offices will also open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 5.

They are at 240 S. Military Trail, west of West Palm Beach; 3188 PGA Blvd., Room 2401, Palm Beach Gardens; and 345 S. Congress Ave., Room 103, Delray Beach.

So far, Kelly said, interest has varied.

It was greatest in Palm Beach Gardens, where Kelly said the branch office was "pretty busy." It has the hottest city council races of any municipality in the county.

By contrast, only a handful of people have voted at the Delray Beach branch, Kelly said.

Residents of Boca Raton and Belle Glade have another option. Leaders of those cities opted to cover the cost of early voting at their city halls. It's only open to voters of those cities.