ORLANDO, Fla. – The state Tuesday denied a request by the elections supervisor in Orange County to extend voting hours at several precincts because of a data glitch that has caused issues at polling locations.
"A request was made to the secretary of state to extend voting an extra hour to 8 p.m. in precincts where municipal elections are taking place," Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said.
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Cowles' request to Gov. Rick Scott was denied, meaning polls will close at 7 p.m.
Municipal elections were being held in Apopka, Belle Isle, Maitland, Ocoee, Winter Park and Windermere.
Cowles said the issue is related to a data glitch.
"We have identified the cause of the problem and isolated the issue to precincts where municipal elections are also taking place," he said. "A data glitch caused the number of ballots printed for each party to be transposed with the non-partisan ballots for the municipal elections. We have heard of issues from about a dozen of the 251 precincts in Orange County, and those locations have already received or are currently receiving an adequate number of additional ballots."
Donald F. McGahn II, an attorney for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, also wrote a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner asking to keep all affected polling locations open as late as necessary to ensure that all eligible voters who want to vote are able to vote.
"This is a serious problem that has caused, is causing and could continue to cause the serial disenfranchisement of voters who are trying to cast ballots for their preferred candidate," McGahn wrote.