Early voting is over, and it looks like Republicans have a strong lead in turnout at the polls. Democrats have a slight lead in voting by mail, but whether that will be enough to overtake their rivals is a question that will be finally answered today.
More than 1 million more Republicans voted early than Democrats across the state. Democrats have a lead of about 200,000 vote-by-mail ballots that have been received so far at elections offices. But nearly 700,000 mail-in ballots were not received by Monday.
Overall, more than 3.5 million Republicans already voted, compared to just over 2.6 million Democrats. Another 1.7 million people with no party affiliation also voted early.
That's down by about a million votes compared to the last presidential contest in 2020. But mail-in ballots can still be returned today.
In the greater Tampa Bay region, Republicans far outvoted Democrats in early voting in every local county. But Democrats held a slight edge in vote-by-mail everywhere except Manatee and Hernando.
According to the Florida Division of Elections, here's how vote-by-mail and early voting went in the greater Tampa Bay area as of Monday:
