Florida
Early voting ballots trickle in ahead of Tuesday’s primary elections
As of 2 p.m. Thursday, 1.33 million voters had returned vote-by-mail ballots or voted early in Florida’s primary elections. Just over 1 million vote-by-mail ballots were yet to be returned. Among the votes cast, 555,056 were from Democrats and 593,800…
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As of 2 p.m. Thursday, 1.33 million voters had returned vote-by-mail ballots or voted early in Florida’s primary elections. Just over 1 million vote-by-mail ballots were yet to be returned.
Among the votes cast, 555,056 were from Democrats and 593,800 from Republicans. About 160,000 ballots cast were by No Party Affiliation voters.
Of the 1 million vote-by-mail ballots outstanding, about 325,000 were for Republicans and 429,000 for Democrats. Another 228,000 belonged to NPA voters.
Republicans enjoy a lead of nearly 1.6 million registered voters. As of Thursday, about 55,000 more Democrats than Republicans had returned ballots by mail. Nearly 100,000 more Republicans have voted early than Democrats.
Early voting is available in all counties until Saturday. Early voting ends Saturday in some counties, and Sunday in others and vote-by-mail ballots must be returned to county election supervisors by 7 p.m. election day Tuesday, Aug. 18 — no matter the postmark. For more information on voting deadlines for the primary and general elections, check out the Phoenix Election 2026 landing page.
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Historical
According to the archived 2020 primary vote-by-mail and early voting statistics, 2.9 million ballots were cast early or by mail that year and 1.9 million mail ballots were not returned.
In 2022, 2.3 million mail ballots were not returned while 2.36 ballots were cast early or by mail.
In 2024, there were half as many ballots not returned, 1.02 million, compared to the 2.07 million cast early or by mail.
During a campaign rally Thursday in Wakulla County, gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds asked who there had already voted. Almost everyone raised hands.
Donalds commented on the overall shift in the share of voters who are Republican. He recalled a conversation he had with Florida GOP chair Evan Power in 2024. “I said, Evan, if you don’t get over 1.4 million by the time we hit election day, you’re in trouble.”
“But he accomplished it, and by the time we got to the November elections in 2024, the voter advantage in Florida, Republicans over Democrats, was more than 1.4 million voters. And, since then, he hasn’t stopped, it’s now gone to 1.5 million and counting.”
In 2018, the Florida Democratic party had about 260,000 more registered voters than the Republican Party.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team.
