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This afternoon the Florida Association of Supervisors of Elections sent a letter to Governor Charlie Crist telling him early voting laws need to be changed. The letter comes as elections supervisors in some parts of the state are scrambling to meet the staffing demands after the governor extended early voting hours, from 8 to 12 hours a day. As Whitney Ray tells us, some elections supervisors may ask the state to pick up the cost of overtime for their staff.

There was no line for early voting in Jefferson County Wednesday morning. Marion Sims and his wife walked right in and with in minutes had cast their ballots.

“It took five minutes. It was easy,” said Sims.

Jefferson County Supervisor of Elections Marty Bishop was shocked when he heard the Governor extended early voting.

“I don’t know if he was figuring where these smaller counties were going to come up with some more funds to pay for it,” said Bishop.

Jefferson County found a volunteer to help out and everyone is working long hours. But In other parts of the state supervisors of elections are asking counties for more man power.

Ron Labasky, an attorney for the Florida Association of Supervisors of Elections, said it’s hard to meet the added demand in such a tight budget year.

“Whenever you operate a governmental process there’s some cost and this is going to be an additional cost that wasn’t anticipated when we first started early voting,” said Labasky.

Labasky said elections supervisors will answer the governor’s call no matter the price tag. The Florida Association of Supervisors of Elections will consider asking the state for a refund for any money counties spend to extend early voting hours.