The federal agents whose surprise appearance at a Tallahassee early voting site triggered an FBI complaint this week had a baffling excuse, officials now say, as they thought they could stop and vote on their way out of the state.
Two U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles parked at the Bruce J. Host Northeast Branch Library, Leon County’s busiest early voting site, around 10:15 a.m. Monday, shortly after early voting began, according to a statement Friday from Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley. The vehicles stayed about 10 minutes, and their occupants did not appear to go inside, he said.
Earley had lodged a formal complaint with the FBI. He noted that federal agencies had assured election officials there would be no federal presence at the polls, because it would violate federal law.
CBP initially told the FBI it had no officially marked vehicles assigned to the area, according to Earley. The Leon County Sheriff’s Office then pulled exterior camera footage from the library and captured the vehicles’ identification numbers, which were forwarded to CBP.
According to the FBI, the vehicles belonged to a team of agents normally stationed in South Florida who had been reassigned out of state, Earley said.
“As they were traveling north out of the state on US Hwy 319, the agents approached our NE Library early voting location and realized they were leaving Florida and would not be present on Election Day,” the statement said. “Mistakenly, the agents thought they could vote at that location, which is incorrect since they were not Leon County voters. Upon realizing this, they immediately left the early voting site.”
Earley said he accepts the account and is “satisfied this was an isolated instance of agents attempting to vote before they left Florida.”
This explanation triggered astonishment from elections experts.
“Oh good. The federal agents who showed up at a Florida early voting site were apparently hoping to vote, except THEY WEREN’T REGISTERED TO VOTE IN THAT COUNTY AND DIDN’T REALIZE THEY COULDN’T VOTE THERE,” Huseman wrote on X. “Federal agents who don’t know how voting works. Terrific.”
She added that it was “the most comical explanation possible.”