Daytona Beach, FL - With just a few days left to go in early voting, Republicans still appear to have the electoral edge over Democrats, both locally and in the state of Florida.
Thanks largely to vote-by-mail, registered GOP voters make up the majority of the nearly 112,000 ballots cast so far in Volusia as of 3 p.m. this afternoon (November 2nd), according to the Supervisor of Elections website. Overall turnout stands at 28%.
It's a similar story in Flagler, where Republicans make up nearly 50% of the over 33,000 ballots turned in. Overall turnout in Flagler is already at over 40%.
More than 4,000,000 Floridians - almost 31% of the state’s 13.28 million registered voters - had already cast ballots as of today for next week’s general election.
Republicans, with an advantage in vote-by-mail ballots, had cast nearly 1.69 million ballots as of Friday morning, according to numbers posted online by the state Division of Elections.
Democrats, slightly up in the number of people going to early-voting sites, had cast a little more than 1.63 million ballots.
Voters with no party affiliation accounted for 722,397 ballots cast, with third-party voters at 26,815.
Early voting will end Saturday in many Florida counties, including Flagler. Volusia and 22 others will do likewise on Sunday.
Due to an executive order from Governor Rick Scott in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf and Jackson counties have added Monday to early voting.
Election Day polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
