Florida's Pre-Election Tally Closes at 5,464,295 Ballots Cast — With 514,950 Mail Ballots Still Out
Nearly four in ten registered Florida voters have already voted, Republicans lead Democrats in ballots cast while Democrats lead in mail returns, and Miami-Dade posted the state's largest early-voting total. The ballots that matter most on Tuesday morning may be the half-million mail ballots that count only if they are received by 7 p.m.
Florida goes into Election Day with 5,464,295 ballots already cast — 39.87% of the state's 13,704,495 active registered voters — according to the Florida Division of Elections figures compiled Monday evening. The pre-election vote splits into 3,467,800 ballots cast early in person and 1,996,495 mail ballots returned, a 79.68% return rate on the mail ballots sent. By registration party — which records how a voter is registered, not how anyone voted — Republicans account for 2,194,540 of the ballots cast, Democrats for 2,065,049 and voters with no party affiliation or another registration for 1,204,706. One number inside the Democrat column stands out: 49.81% of registered Democrats have already voted, the highest participation rate of any group, against 38.59% of Republicans — but Republicans' much larger registration base still leaves them ahead in raw ballots.
Miami-Dade did the heaviest early lifting in the state. Its 354,203 early in-person ballots were the largest county total in Florida, ahead of Broward (314,113), Orange (223,587), Palm Beach (222,108) and Hillsborough (216,752), in the state reports compiled Monday. Together with mail returns, the county's pre-election vote set up the Election Day map both parties now have to work: 8,240,200 registered voters statewide had not cast a ballot by Monday evening, and every one of them can only vote in person on Tuesday, at their assigned precinct, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time.
The sharpest edge of the closing tally is the mail that is still out. State reports count 514,950 mail ballots sent to voters and not yet returned as of Monday. Those are not votes, and after tonight they cannot become votes by mail: Florida counts a mail ballot only if it is received by the county elections office by 7 p.m. on Election Day, and a ballot postmarked in time but delivered late is not counted. A voter still holding one has exactly one reliable route left — hand-deliver it to the county elections office on Tuesday, or set it aside and vote in person instead. Polls open at 7 a.m.; anyone in line at 7 p.m. may vote. Everything cast before Tuesday is now a fixed number. Everything else is tomorrow.
