Early voting also surged in Latino-dense counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward.
Early voting in Florida is breaking records. Democrats, so far, are coming out to vote in droves, but Republicans are catching up (41% to 37%). More than 6 million have already voted in Florida, according to the United States Elections Project, which surpasses the total number of votes that President Donald Trump got in the Sunshine State in 2016.
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As of Oct. 26, results from Florida’s Department of State’s Division of Elections show that 2,212,655 people voted early, and 3,805,775 voted by mail. In Florida, Democrats have outvoted Republicans by a 596,000 margin by mail, while Republicans only have a 230,000 edge in person.
County Breakdown
In Latino dense counties, early voting turnout was also high. In Miami-Dade County, home to 1.7 million Latinos, 266,563 people voted early. Another 390,198 voted by mail. In Broward County, with a Latino population of 472,000, the elections board received 364,922 votes by mail ballots, and another 178,609 voted early.
In Indian River County, Latinos make up an estimated 16,000 of the population. The elections board reports that 20,627 voted early and another 38,096 voted by mail. In Osceola County, home to almost 60% Latinos, 58,128 people voted by mail, and another 35,635 voted early.
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In Alachua County, where some residents received email intimidation threats, 27,478 voted early, and 46,883 voted by mail. In Hillsborough County, where almost 20% of the population is Latino, 260,129 voted by mail, and another 135,556 voted early.
Huge Voting Strides
Since early voting began on Oct. 19, more people have already cast ballots in this year’s presidential election than voted early or absentee in the 2016 race, as the start of in-person early voting in big states led to a surge in turnout in recent days.
According to Politico, as of Oct. 19, voting-by-mail results show 2.5 million ballots received, which is more than double the 1.2 million during the same timeframe in 2016.
Democrats have continued to dominate the initial balloting, but Republicans are narrowing the gap. On Oct. 15, Democratic registrants cast 51% of all ballots reported, compared with 25% from Republicans. On Sunday, Democrats had a slightly smaller lead, 51% to 31%.
Pew Research Center shows that there are currently 5.30 million registered Democrats and 5.17 million registered Republicans in the state—an edge of about 134,000 voters in favor of the Democrats. But the size of that margin has fallen from 327,000 in 2016 and 658,000 in 2008.
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