Florida Republicans Close Early Voting Up 153,000 Ballots - and Election Day Is Still the Real Test
A late-afternoon surge on the final day pushed the Republican early-vote lead past 153,000, a more comfortable number than Saturday's thin margin - and still far below the party's 2022 and 2024 cushions.
Florida Republicans ended the early-voting period with a lead that grew through its final day. Reporting cited by Eye on Jacksonville put the Republican advantage at more than 130,000 ballots at midday Sunday, and at more than 153,000 after a late-afternoon surge, citing the University of Florida Elections Project's chart of the state count. Turnout stood at nearly 41 percent heading into Election Day.
The bigger lead eases - but does not erase - the unease that ran through the Republican weekend. As of Saturday afternoon, Republicans were ahead by just 2.8 percentage points in early votes cast against an 11-point registration edge, with the softest turnout in the Panhandle and rural North Florida. At this same stage, the Republican early-vote lead was about 321,000 ballots in 2022 and about 847,000 in 2024.
History cuts both ways, and the same report notes it: Democrats led Florida's early vote at this point in both 2018 and 2020, and lost both elections. What remains is the Republican Party's traditional Election Day surge, still to come on Tuesday, Nov. 3, when polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the early count's cushion - whichever party holds it - gets its real test.
