Florida Early Vote Hits 5,159,537 in the Sunday Morning Count, With 550,106 Mail Ballots Still Out

Florida's early vote reached 5,159,537 ballots in the state Division of Elections' count compiled at 8:09 a.m. Sunday, according to the division's vote-by-mail and early voting statistics as reported by Launchpad Digital Florida. That is up from 4,274,034 in the count compiled Friday morning - a gain of roughly 885,000 ballots across the final early voting weekend, with South Florida's last early voting day still running until 7 p.m. Sunday.

The method split is 3,256,797 ballots cast early in person and 1,902,740 returned by mail. By registration, in-person voters were 1,430,249 Republicans, 1,127,932 Democrats, 85,108 voters of other parties and 613,508 with no party affiliation; mail voters were 668,424 Republicans, 815,396 Democrats, 46,818 other-party voters and 372,102 unaffiliated. Registration is not a vote choice, and no ballot is counted before Election Day. The University of Florida Election Lab's parallel compilation put the total slightly lower, at 5,148,276, on the same party-registration split of about 40.7 percent Republican and 37.7 percent Democratic.

The number that decides the next two days is 550,106: mail ballots sent to Florida voters that had not been returned by Sunday morning. A mailed ballot must reach its county supervisor of elections by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3 - a postmark does not count - so elections officials' standing advice for a ballot still at home is to deliver it in person rather than mail it. Polls on Tuesday are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at each voter's assigned precinct.