Florida Politics
Early votes have been counted. Who has the Florida advantage going into Election Day?
Assuming everyone voted according to their party, the two-week early voting period that ended Sunday could be good news for the challenger in the presidential race in a state many call a must-win to take the White House.
For the first time in two weeks, Florida Democrats cast more ballots than Republicans on Sunday, helping Democratic nominee Joe Biden pad his advantage over President Donald Trump in the nation’s biggest battleground heading into Election Day.
According to figures posted Monday morning by the Florida Division of Elections, just over 100,000 Democratic votes were processed Sunday, the final day of early voting in Florida.
Florida Republicans, meanwhile, cast about 88,000 ballots.
That disparity helped Democrats build their advantage in ballots cast in the state up to 108,143 heading into Election Day, although those numbers will fluctuate as elections officials continue to receive and process mail ballots on Monday.
Through Sunday evening, 8.974 million ballots had been cast early and by mail in Florida, nearly matching the entire 9.5 million votes cast in the 2016 presidential election.
Of those votes, 39% were cast by Democrats, 38% by Republicans, and 21.5% by independent voters unaffiliated with either party. The remainder were cast by voters affiliated with minor political parties.
So far, 66.2% of all registered Florida Democrats have voted, as well as 65.8% of registered Republicans and 51.5% of no-party-affiliated voters.
Miami-Dade numbers
In Miami-Dade, Florida’s largest county and a potential deal-breaker for one of the candidates, 35,803 voters cast ballots at early voting centers Sunday, which traditionally is a big day for Democrats, especially Black Democrats as churches rally their congregations for Souls to the Polls.
Of those voters, 13,359 were Democrats, 9,769 were cast by Republicans, and 12,674 voters without party affiliation.
Heading into Election, 72% of Miami-Dade Republicans have already voted, compared to 64% of Miami-Dade Democrats and 56% of no-party-affiliated voters.
How did Souls to the Polls do Sunday?
On the Day of the Dead on Sunday, the lively sights and sounds of the 2020 election were hard to escape in several corners of Miami-Dade County on the last day of early voting.
But by Sunday night, the county’s Elections Department reported weak turnout for the day compared to 2016’s final “Souls to the Polls” Sunday ahead of Election Day. About 35,800 votes were cast on Sunday, compared to 53,098 on the same Sunday in 2016 —a decline of 33%.
Still, Miami-Dade Democrats pulled ahead of Republicans Sunday on the early-voting score after dominating a less busy “Souls to the Polls” day of final early voting.
Weekend rallies
Joe Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris rallied Democrats in South Florida over the weekend in time to garner some early voter’s ballots.
President Donald Trump held a rally that extended far beyond midnight at Miami-Opa-locka Executive Airport after early voting locations had closed so those attendees who didn’t take advantage of early voting or vote-by-mail have Election Day on Tuesday to make their choice.
Miami Herald staff writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report.
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