TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Leon County’s top elections official says the two federal border vehicles spotted at a Tallahassee early voting site this week were there because the agents inside wrongly believed they could cast ballots at that location.
Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley laid out the explanation in a release on Friday. Two U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles showed up at the Northeast Branch Library on Monday, Oct. 19, at roughly 10:15 a.m., which was early in the first day of in-person early voting. The library draws more early voters than any other site in Leon County.
According to Earley, the FBI learned that the agents normally work in South Florida and had recently been moved to a post in North Florida. They were driving north on U.S. Highway 319 toward the state line when they realized they would be gone on Election Day, so they stopped at the library hoping to vote early.
Because they are not registered in Leon County, they could not vote there. The vehicles sat at the site for about 10 minutes before the agents left without voting. No voter phoned the elections office to report the stop, Earley said.
Earley had filed a formal complaint with the FBI earlier in the week and said he stayed in touch with local, state and federal partners. He now calls it an isolated case and says his office will keep working so every Leon County voter can take part in the Nov. 3 general election free of intimidation. Earlier this year, Earley told voters that immigration enforcement officers would not be posted at Leon County polling places, and he has said that assurance came from his contacts at Homeland Security, the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
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