Well, leave it to Polk County to vote a straight Republican ballot...

Without exception, all the Republican candidates won their races yesterday, from Congressman/Bush lapdog Adam Putnam through the legislative seats down to the four County Commission contests. Many of the legislative and BOCC races were generally 60-40 splits, with county commission candidate Jean Reed coming closest to unseating Jeb! appointee Paul Senft (he is filling the remaining term of the late Charles Richardson, who passed away earlier this year).

Bush won among the early voters and those who voted absentee, which was hoped to be a strong showing for Kerry. Here's the breakdown by precinct as well as early voters and absentee ballots.

I was a poll watcher at Lakeland Harbor, a large 55+ manafactured home park in north Lakeland which is one of the largest precincts area-wise in the area. By the time the polls opened at 7:00 AM, there was a line of around 100 people waiting. While there were ebbs and flows of voters throughout the remainder of the day, the expected rush during the afternoon didn't occur. As a matter of fact, in the last hour the precinct was nearly dead! And aside from the initial queue when the polling place opened, there was almost no significant line to be found. The VIS (Voter Information Specialist) desk, where I parked myself for the day, was active with plenty of address changes and spoiled ballots. A very few situations came up, but all were handled with no problem; the only incidents were a couple of people that were offered provisional ballots but were told by the precinct clerk that they would likely be thrown out as the individuals were not registered to vote in Polk County. The one that did fill out a provisional ballot claims she registered through the DMV but it did not reach the Supervisor of Elections' database.