ORLANDO, Fla. _ Florida voters turned out in record-shattering numbers on the first day of early voting for the Nov. 3 election, with about 355,000 ballots cast compared with the old top total of about 300,000 on the first day in 2016.
Combined with mail-in votes that have already been returned, about 3 million Floridians have already voted, two weeks before Election Day. That's nearly 21% of registered voters.
Seminole County set a record for first-day early turnout, and Orange County nearly topped its best day.
The numbers are the best estimate of Monday's totals, as the counties continuously update the numbers as they come in.
Democrats also slightly outpolled Republicans statewide, with about 150,000 Democratic ballots cast to about 149,000 for the GOP. About 53,000 non-party-affiliated voters also went to the polls Monday.
Democrats had the early-voting advantage in 2016, with about 1.6 million Democrats casting early ballots compared to about 1.4 million Republicans. But the GOP held a slim vote-by-mail advantage in 2016, with about 1.1 million mail-in ballots to just more than 1 million for the Democrats.
This year, the repeated attacks on vote-by-mail by President Donald Trump combined with a major push by Democrats to vote by mail amid the ongoing pandemic has given Democrats a big lead by mail, with about 1.3 million Democratic ballots cast compared to about 800,000 for Republicans, and 529,000 for no-party-affiliated voters.
Orange County elections supervisor Bill Cowles said Monday's total of 16,778 early voters fell just short of the record of 16,912 set in 2016.
Cowles said that part of the reason early voting numbers didn't quite reach record highs in the county could be because of the shift by Democrats to mail-in voting.
"How many people who voted by mail normally vote early?" Cowles said, adding that thunderstorms that rolled through the area Monday also might have affected the numbers.
Seminole County supervisor Chris Anderson said almost 9,800 voters dropped off mail-in ballots at drop boxes at early voting sites, more than the 9,060 who voted in-person at those sites.
Party numbers were also switched in Seminole, a key swing county for the state.
On Monday, Democrats outpolled Republicans with almost 4,000 early voters to about 3,400 GOP voters. Another 1,700 were independents.
Seminole, long a Republican bastion, has been trending Democratic over the past decade. Trump got fewer votes there in 2016 than GOP candidate Mitt Romney in 2012, and the county voted for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum over GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2018.
Democrats also outpolled Republicans on the first day of early voting in several other key swing counties, including Pinellas and Duval.
Early voting continues until the weekend before Election Day on Nov. 3. The exact dates, hours and locations are established by each county's supervisor of elections, and they can vary.
Voters can cast ballots in any early-voting location within their home county.
