It still seems somewhat hard to believe that we're now just 13 days away from Election Day. With early voting now underway in Florida, the first in-person ballots cast have now been voted in addition to the record-setting number of votes by mail from to the start of early voting. Have Republicans started to bridge the gap now that they can vote in person or are Democrats continuing to run up the turnout score in-person as well?
In recent election cycles, more Floridians had voted early than on Election Day or by mail. It remains to be seen if that will be the case after record requests with votes by mail. Speaking of which here’s where we stand with all votes by mail received as of Sunday. Over 2.6 million Floridians have voted by mail and over 366,000 thousand have early voted. Democrats have outvoted Republicans by 481,631 votes by mail and by 261 votes in early voting.
Democrats have successfully executed a strong vote by mail campaign flipping the script on Republicans who led in votes by mail in the 2016 election. What’s more, is they also hold a slight lead in early voting as well. It’s worth noting that 15 counties still haven’t begun early voting, with most being in Republican-majority counties. Still, the early votes suggest there’s lots of enthusiasm among Democrats. With record numbers of votes by mail and early votes being cast and Democrats posting advantages in both, it's a meaningful storyline in the early going. Republicans will have to be far more competitive with in-person voting than what we’ve seen out of the gate if they’re to have success from the top of the ticket on down.
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