Florida is voting early. Here's how many Democrats and Republicans are showing up
Floridians braved the rain and fears of COVID-19 to head to the polls in record numbers Monday on the first day of early voting, with slightly more Democrats casting ballots in person than Republicans.
A total of about 366,000 people voted: about 154,000 Democrats, 153,700 Republicans and 55,000 unaffiliated voters, according to data from the Florida Division of Elections.
In the past, Democrats have generally had an edge in early voting. This year, so far, they’ve built up a lead of 482,000 votes, including mail ballots. But Republicans are expected to vote heavily in person, in part because of President Donald Trump’s months of criticism of the mail voting process. Slightly more Democrats are registered to vote in Florida than Republicans, but Republicans narrowed the gap this year to just 134,000.
Florida Democratic strategist Steve Schale, who led Barack Obama’s 2008 Florida campaign and is CEO of the pro-Biden Unite Our Country Super PAC, said Monday that several days of early voting will need to pass before anyone can analyze trends or make sense of the turnout.
“The biggest thing about 2020 is there’s no model for it,” he said. “There’s no history we can look back at.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article246575553.html#storylink=cpy