FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

6.4 million Floridians have already voted — more than the state's entire turnout in 2000

The final results of early voting in Florida are in, and the numbers indicate that residents of the Sunshine State meant business this election year, with a record-breaking turnout.

More than 6.4 million Floridians cast their vote during the Oct. 24–Nov. 6 early voting period, surpassing the key swing state’s entire voter turnout of 5,963,110 in the highly contested 2000 presidential race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. Here’s a breakdown of notable early-voting stats:

Advertisement

—Roughly half of Florida’s 12.9 million registered voters cast their ballots early, up 80 percent from 2012.

—Early votes cast by Latinos were up 108 percent compared to 2008.

—Democrats have the edge by approximately 87,000 ballots. Democrat Floridians cast almost 2.6 million votes, compared to almost 2.5 million for Republicans. But the Tampa Bay Times observed that the Dems’ early-voting lead this time falls short of the 100,000 they had in the 2012 race.

—As of Saturday, 36 percent of the Latinos who voted early did not vote at all in the 2012 election, according to political scientist Daniel Smith from the University of Florida.

—About 455,000 Latinos voted early in Florida — 86.9 percent more than in 2012.

—More than 70,000 African-American Floridians voted early, a 9.2 percent increase over 2012.

—The surge was driven in part by two large southern Florida counties in the final days of early voting: In Miami-Dade, 55 percent voted early, and in Broward, 52 percent, which the Tampa Bay Times noted was above the statewide average. “There’s really no other way to say it,” said politics writer Patricia Mazzei in the Miami Herald. “Early voting went absolutely gangbusters in Florida’s two most populous counties on Sunday.”

—As of 3:10 p.m. Monday, FiveThirtyEight put Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the swing state at 51.4 percent, a more than three-percentage-point increase from Sunday.