Miami-Dade briefly ran out of ballots Sunday for some voters at its North Miami location, as malfunctioning printers upended logistics there during the final day of early voting and had people reporting wait times topping three hours.
As the sun set on the 14th day of early voting in the largely black neighborhood, more than 200 voters were in a line that snaked around half a block outside the North Miami library. “I would have stayed in line eight hours if I had to,” Joas Laurent, 37, said as he walked out of the library at 7:20 p.m., about three hours after he said he arrived.
The printers used to generate customized ballots for a voter’s precinct failed early in the afternoon, and poll workers eventually had to turn to pre-printed ballots to let people vote, said Christina White, the county’s elections supervisor. When those ran out for two of the surrounding precincts, the county had to rush in replacements from nearby polling places. She said it’s the only time she can recall Miami-Dade running out of ballots at a voting site.