Florida's Early Vote Is Final: 5.16 Million Ballots In, and the Republican Lead Is 155,000
The Division of Elections' Sunday-morning tally through Saturday closes the early book: Republicans lead by about 3 points — half their 2022 margin — while Democrats have already passed their entire 2022 pre-Election Day total.
Florida's early vote is in the books, and it is closer than four years ago. More than 5.16 million Floridians had cast ballots by mail or at early-voting sites through Saturday, according to the Florida Division of Elections report compiled Sunday morning — 2,098,673 of them registered Republicans and 1,943,328 registered Democrats, a Republican edge of about 155,000 ballots, or roughly 3 percentage points. Voters with no party affiliation or a minor party cast another 1,117,536 ballots.
The shape of the vote split by method. Republicans dominated the in-person early vote, 1,430,249 to 1,127,932, while Democrats led comfortably in returned mail ballots, 815,396 to 668,424. The totals describe the registration of the voters who cast ballots — under Florida law the state compiles them from daily county reports — and not how any of those ballots were marked.
Measured against the last midterm, both parties can find a number to like. Democrats have already surpassed their entire 2022 pre-Election Day total of 1,870,486 ballots. But Republicans carried a lead of about 298,000 ballots into Election Day in 2022; this year that cushion is roughly half as large. What is left is Tuesday: Election Day, November 3, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. — and, as both parties' strategists keep noting, a Florida Republican tradition of outvoting Democrats on the day itself.
