Five polling stations in Opa-locka, nine miles northwest of Miami, opened on time at 7 a.m., and all the touch-screen voting machines quickly got up and running, said David Leahy, the county's top elections official.
"We used the same procedures, the same kind of teams that we will use Nov. 5," he said. "We wanted this to be as close to a real dress rehearsal as possible."
The county has revamped training for election workers and given itself a cushion of more than 12 hours before polls open to set up and start the machines.
The changes were made after the Sept. 10 primary, when polling stations opened late and thousands of votes went uncounted for days due to technical glitches caused by poor planning and inadequate poll worker training.
Some voters exiting the polls in Opa-locka said they were unsure their ballots were properly cast.
"It only shows the mayor's name, not the commissioners'; I'm just not sure my vote went through," said Sabrina Rhymes, a retiree.
Leahy said there was no glitch; the machines were programmed not to show the names of every candidate on the final screen in that race.
There are 6,049 registered voters in Opa-locka.
Meanwhile, Broward County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to advance $1.4 million to election officials, who had implored the panel for the money, saying it was necessary to prevent another election mess.
Miami-Dade and Broward were among the counties involved in the 2000 presidential election debacle.
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