November 6th, 2012 - Bokeelia, Florida
For most of the day there was a line of voters 85 deep at the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Catholic Church in Bokeelia.

At 11PM it began to downpour which many in line became soaked. We know, because we were in line. But we were prepared – prepared to get in and out. . .which didn’t happen. Thanks to neighborly Pine Islanders they allowed us to borrow their 2nd umbrella. Yes they thought .to bring two and we didn’t bring one. All of the sudden beach umbrellas broke out all over the church parking lot.

The church has had a renovation earlier this year which reduced the voting area by about 1/3. But the rest of the day they were able to wrap the lines in the building. We cannot remember anything like this in forty years of voting on Pine Island. . .neither the long lines nor the rain on primary day.

There was at least a two hour wait to vote due primarily to the fact that there was only one electronic tabulating machine provided to the precinct – although the length of the ballot didn’t help. Apparently Cape Coral needed the extra electronic tabulating machines. Of course if
Pine Island was an annex of the Cape I’m sure we might have gotten another machine. We know for a fact the long wait discouraged many people from voting. There were rumors of machine breakdowns and jams but after two hours . . .done.