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Florida Early Voting and Vote-By-Mail Update
Bottom Line: Florida’s Primary Election Day is today and already over 2.1 million Floridians have had their votes tabulated. For those who’ve yet to vote the polls will be open from 7am-7pm today. This cycle marks the first in Florida’s history in which republicans hold the largest number of registered voters, however republicans don’t have a high-profile race at the top of the ticket as democrats do this primary cycle. Will that lead to lower turnout among republicans? What does engagement by Florida’s NPA’s look like? Florida’s NPA’s make up over 29% of all registered voters and will play a critical role in determining non-partisan races on our August ballots.
Here’s how many Floridians have already voted based on party registration in comparison to votes tabulated prior to election day from Florida’s primary election four years ago:
- Democrat: 45.5% (43.9% - in 2018)
- Minor Party: 0.9% (0.03% - in 2018)
- NPA: 12.0% (10.1% in 2018)
- Republican: 41.5% (45.7% in 2018)
Pre-Election Day turnout, at least on a percentage basis, was higher among all non-republican voters. Democrats have a considerable lead with vote-by-mail ballots, while republicans are led with early in-person voter turnout. Both of those were reversals from four years ago. Heading into today’s Primary Day we have these questions. Will republican turnout suffer without a competitive high-profile race at the top-of-the ticket? Will the emphasis on school boards over the past couple of years translate into higher overall turnout and perhaps certain seats flipping? Turnout will be key to the outcome of many non-partisan races across the state – most notably school board races.