Two U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles that drew concern at a Tallahassee early voting site last week carried agents who had stopped because they hoped to cast ballots, Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley said in a statement released Friday.
According to Earley's office, the vehicles pulled up to the Northeast Branch Library site on Monday, Oct. 19, and stayed for roughly 10 minutes. Citing the FBI, the office said the team is usually based in South Florida, had recently been reassigned out of state, and was driving north on U.S. Highway 319 when the agents realized they would be gone on Election Day.
Earley described the library as the final voting location on that highway before the state line. Once the agents learned they could not vote there because they were not registered in Leon County, they drove off, his office said.
"I am satisfied this was an isolated instance of agents attempting to vote before they left Florida," Earley said. Earlier in the week he had filed a formal complaint with the FBI, noting that federal law bars armed federal officers from being in or around polling places.
A separate inquiry in the Keys
A second case is still open at the other end of the state. Monroe County's elections supervisor opened an investigation after reports that masked federal agents made a stop at a Key Largo polling place, and she also lodged a complaint with the FBI. No outcome had been reported as of Monday.
Florida's election supervisors said the FBI assured them at their summer conference that immigration enforcement would not take place at polling places. Brevard County's elections supervisor has said officials heard "time and time again" that no such plans existed for Florida.
Earley urged voters not to stay home. "It's safe to go out to the polls," he said.
