MIAMI — Assuming everyone voted according to their party, the two-week early voting period that ended Sunday could be good news for the challenger in the presidential race in a state many call a must-win to take the White House.
For the first time in two weeks, Florida Democrats cast more ballots than Republicans on Sunday, helping Democratic nominee Joe Biden pad his advantage over President Donald Trump in the nation's biggest battleground heading into Election Day.
According to figures posted Monday morning by the Florida Division of Elections, just over 100,000 Democratic votes were processed Sunday, the final day of early voting in Florida.
Florida Republicans, meanwhile, cast about 88,000 ballots.
That disparity helped Democrats build their advantage in ballots cast in the state up to 108,143 heading into Election Day, although those numbers will fluctuate as elections officials continue to receive and process mail ballots on Monday.
Through Sunday evening, 8.974 million ballots had been cast early and by mail in Florida, nearly matching the entire 9.5 million votes cast in the 2016 presidential election.
Of those votes, 39% were cast by Democrats, 38% by Republicans, and 21.5% by independent voters unaffiliated with either party. The remainder were cast by voters affiliated with minor political parties.
So far, 66.2% of all registered Florida Democrats have voted, as well as 65.8% of registered Republicans and 51.5% of no-party-affiliated voters.
