1 Million Ballots Cast In Florida For November Election

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Daytona Beach, FL - If the numbers are any indication, interest in the November 6th general election is the highest it's been for a mid-term in quite some time.

The Florida Division of Elections reported nearly 1.04 million ballots had been cast through the vote-by-mail method today (October 23rd) and another 118,360 people had used early-voting locations, which opened Monday in 31 counties.

Among those 31 are Flagler, which has already seen over 3,000 early voters since the polls opened, according to the county's Supervisor of Elections. When you factor in the vote-by-mail ballots, Flagler already has voter turnout of nearly 13%, with over 10,000 ballots cast.

Volusia's early voting won't begin until Saturday (October 27th), but the county's Supervisor of Elections has already reported over 43,000 vote-by-mail ballots submitted, which makes up just under 11% of the overall turnout.

Registered GOP voters make up the bulk of ballots submitted so far in Volusia and Flagler, with the former at just over 43% (18,712) and the latter at just over 48% (5,091).

15,779 Democrats have voted in Volusia so far, making up just under 37% of the ballots cast. In Flagler, 3,692 Democrats have cast ballots, which is just under 35% of the ballots cast.

8,574 unaffiliated and other party voters have voted in Volusia so far, with 1,793 doing the same in Flagler. That makes up just under 20% of ballots cast in Volusia and just under 17% in Flagler.

Statewide, Republicans held the overall lead as of Tuesday morning, with 456,076 ballots cast by mail and 47,850 through early voting.

Democrats had cast 397,393 votes by mail and 51,555 through early voting.

Unaffiliated voters had cast 178,294 vote-by-mail ballots and 18,050 early votes.

Early voting is mandatory statewide from Saturday through Nov. 3, but counties had the option to start earlier this week.

Sumter County joined the other 31 counties in opening early voting locations on Tuesday.

Early voting begins Wednesday in Hernando, Manatee, Pasco and St. Johns counties.

Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf and Jackson counties will offer early voting through Nov. 5, as allowed under an executive order for counties directly hit by Hurricane Michael.