Leon County's Early Vote Is Final: More Than 50,000 Ballots Cast Early and 26,000 More by Mail Before a Single Election Day Vote
More than 76,000 of the county's roughly 184,500 registered voters had already voted when early voting closed Sunday — and Supervisor Mark Earley has been predicting a finish around 65 percent, on par with 2018.
Leon County went into Election Day with much of its verdict already cast. Sunday was the final day of early voting in the county, and by its close more than 50,000 people had cast ballots early in person, with another 26,000 voting by mail, according to the Leon County Supervisor of Elections website, WCTV reported. Together that is more than 76,000 ballots from a registration roll the Tallahassee Democrat put at 184,523 voters — over two in five registered voters in the capital county before Tuesday's polls open.
The pace was visible before the final weekend: as of 9 a.m. Saturday, 66,321 Leon voters had already voted by mail or early in person, pushing turnout near 36 percent with two early-voting days still to run. Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley told the Democrat turnout was trending on the high side for a midterm, surpassing the 2022 midterms by a significant amount, and predicted the final figure would land somewhere around 65 percent — roughly on par with 2018, when a Tallahassee mayor, Andrew Gillum, was the Democratic nominee for governor.
Tuesday is now the whole of what is left. Voters who have not voted must appear at their assigned precinct between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.; anyone still holding a mail ballot must have it in the elections office's hands by 7 p.m., because a postmark does not count. The early and mail ballots are counted first when results begin posting after polls close — which means the 76,000 votes already in will be the first numbers Tallahassee sees on election night.
