Florida Republicans leading Democrats in number of early votes cast

More Republicans have cast early ballots than Democrats in Florida, according to data from the University of Florida. 

Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the university’s College of Journalism and Communications, said on Thursday that 2.19 million votes had been cast in the state, but that Republicans were leading Democrats by 26,866 ballots.

Florida Republicans had cast roughly 902,000 ballots while Florida Democrats had cast roughly 875,000 as of Thursday. Independent voters had cast about 415,000 ballots. Fresh Take Florida noted that Sumter County had both the highest turnout for Republicans and Democrats among all of the counties in the state. 

Data from the Florida Division of Elections as of Oct. 18 shows more Republicans are registered in the state than Democrats. GOP voters make up 36 percent of registered voters in the state compared to Democrats at 34 percent. 

Those figures come against the backdrop of two high-profile statewide races in Florida – the gubernatorial race between Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Democrat Charlie Crist and the Senate race between Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Democrat Val Demings. 

A poll from the Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) at the University of North Florida released on Wednesday showed DeSantis maintaining a healthy lead over Crist among likely voters at 55 percent and 41 percent respectively. The poll also found Rubio leading Demings at 54 percent and 43 percent.