Court Rejects Charlie Crist's Bid to Extend Voting Hours

Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist's camp Tuesday filed an emergency motion through a local circuit court to extend poll hours another two hours, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., in Broward County after several reported problems at the county's polls, but the motion was denied, reports CNN.

One polling station in the county, which includes the city of Fort Lauderdale, was offline for over an hour on Tuesday morning, reports The Hill, while other malfunctions with electronic poll books were reported.

According to The Tampa Bay Times, the motion was filed by the Crist campaign and the Broward County Democratic Party, saying there were "system breakdowns" with the electronic units that let voters update their address changes when they vote.

Initially, Crist's campaign asked Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes to extend voting, but she refused.

CNN reported that people in line in Broward County at 7 p.m. would be allowed to vote.

Crist and incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott are in a heated battle for the governor's office. Crist was Florida's governor from 2007 to 2011. At that time, he was a Republican, but he switched parties to run as an independent for the Senate. Crist then changed parties and became  a Democrat.

On Tuesday, a Connecticut judge extended hours at two polling stations in Hartford, while South Dakota's secretary of state ordered results delayed for an hour after problems that were similar to those reported in Florida, The Hill reports.

According to Democrats, one polling station was offline for more than 90 minutes, and there were other malfunctions through the county that resulted in some voters being unable to cast ballots.

The request was filed after early reports showed only about half of the early vote totals had been cast by midday in the county, which is heavily Democratic and key to a Crist win.

Related Stories:

• Scott Edges Out Crist in Florida Governor's Race Poll
• Charlie Crist Gets a 'D' From NRA