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Is voter fraud a problem in Lee County?

Posted at 7:22 PM, Oct 21, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-24 06:31:21-04

If you're like Kiera Dobson, you're ready for this election to be over.

"This is probably the worst election I have ever watched," Dobson said. "I want it to be over already."

Other than who gets elected into office, Dobson says voter fraud is at the forefront of her mind. She isn't the only one, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has emphasized about voter fraud across the country.

"So many cities are corrupt in voter fraud," Trump said at a local rally. "Voter fraud is very very common."

Four In Your Corner sat down with the Lee County Supervisor of Elections to find out if there's a problem in the county.

"No, all of our systems are completely safe," Sharon Harrington said. "All of our equipment is tested. Once we do the test, we lock those machines up with a special seal. Even is someone thought that didn't work, we still have paper ballots."

Harrington reassured Four In Your Corner there's no way any fraudulent activity can take place with this upcoming election. Another concern voters like Dobson brought up is how seasonal residents in southwest Florida will play a role on or before November 8th.

"People who live up north for a season and live here for a season can easily register here and register there. Vote twice. You've got to worry about that", she said.

Four In Your Corner asked the Supervisor of Election if there is any way to make sure seasonal residents are not voting here in the sunshine state and their other seasonal residence. 

"Well, actually there's an issue," Harrington said. 

Harrington says the Help America Vote Act mandated every state to develop a central voter database. Florida jumped on board and found many duplicate registrations within the state. For example, people moving from Miami to Fort Myers may not have marked on a form that they were registered in a different county. However, the database helped weed out the duplicates but Harrington says as of right now there's no way to track duplicates nation-wide.

"We don't have a way of checking that on a national level just yet," Harrington said. "If every state participated it would benefit us all."

As of today, more than 80,000 ballots have been mailed in. Early voting begins on Monday, October 24th.