Election officials in Miami-Dade County and Broward County, both Democratic strongholds, indicated a higher-than-expected turnout on Election Day. Over 63 percent of voters in both counties had already cast ballots in early voting, according to the United States Elections Project.
“Right now the overall turnout is almost 71%,” Steve Vancore, spokesman for the Broward County Supervisor of Elections, told The Miami Herald in the afternoon. “We’re still picking up ballots at the post office and there’s been a nonstop line at drop boxes for mail-in ballots, so an 80% turnout is within reach.”
Although most of the Election Day vote in Florida was expected to have a significant Republican lean, South Florida is likely to be a notable exception.
In Miami-Dade County, Democrats held a 35 percent to 31 percent advantage in votes cast on Election Day in the afternoon. Based on past elections and polling, a far larger gap would have been expected overall. However, early totals of actual votes on Tuesday night indicated that Republicans may have significantly narrowed the gap in the county.
Democratic Election Day turnout outnumbered Republicans heavily in Broward County, with the gap increasing as the day went on, according to polling expert Nate Silver.
“From 3pm to 4pm, Broward was D41/R26/I33 (D +15). So this gap keeps growing,” Silver tweeted. “From 4pm to 6pm, the partisan split in Broward was D43/R22/I35 (D+21). A very big blue shift over the course of the day.”
“Since 6pm in Broward (10 minutes until polls close): D45/R17/I37 (D +28),” he later added. “Democrats closing the Florida in-person vote much stronger than they started it.”
In Monroe County, which President Donald Trump won in 2016 breaking a 20-year streak for Democrats, turnout was also up, with election officials expecting to smash records. The county, includes the Florida Keys, was at 76 percent as of noon on Election Day, nearly matching the total turnout in 2016. Almost 67 percent of registered voters cast ballots in early voters.
Turnout by party registration does not necessarily indicate which candidate a voter will choose. In addition, a large number of independent voters are expected to be a significant factor in the outcome of the election.
Almost 9 million voters had cast ballots across all of Florida by the time early voting ended on Sunday, less than 500,000 votes fewer than the total of all votes cast in the state in 2016.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump and Biden campaigns for comment.
