GOP Leads Dems After Start of Fla. In-Person Early Voting

Early in-person voting began in Florida on Monday, and Republicans likely will be pleased with the turnout of their voters compared with Democrats.

According to the Florida’s Voice vote tracker, registered Republicans had a 54.4%-27.8% edge over registered Democrats in in-person voting as of 4 p.m. Tuesday, followed by voters with no party affiliation at 15.7% and “other” at 2.1%.

When it comes to mail-in balloting, Democrats had a narrower 42.2%-36.7% edge over Republicans, with no party affiliation at 19% and “other” at 2%.

Overall, Republicans received 894,037 votes (42.4%), Democrats 794,277 (37.6%), no party affiliation 379,649 (18%) and “other” 42,911 (2%).

Florida appears to be a safe pick-up for former President Donald Trump, who had a lead of 5.8 percentage points (50.7%-44.9%) over his Democrat rival Vice President Kamala Harris in the FiveThirtyEight polling average. Trump won the state in 2016 by 1.2 percentage points (49%-47.8) over Hillary Clinton and by 3.4 points (51.2%-47.8%) over Joe Biden in 2020.

The popularity of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has helped galvanize GOP voters in the Sunshine State, especially after his landslide victory in the 2022 election by nearly 20 points over Democrat Charlie Crist.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about voter turnout, and these early numbers make it clear that Florida Republicans are energized to vote,” Evan Power, chair of the Republican Party of Florida, said in a news released posted on the group’s X account.

“We are going to return President Trump to the White House to end inflation, make our borders safe again, grow our economy with good jobs, and restore national security,” Power said. “We have the wind at our back, but we can’t let up now. We need every Republican in Florida to get out and vote in the next two weeks to send Kamala Harris packing on Nov. 5.”

• AJC Poll: Trump Has Slight Lead in Georgia
• Sen. Tuberville to Newsmax: Republicans Learning to Vote Early