Florida saw near-record turnout in the 2024 general election. That's due in part to voters across the Tampa Bay region.
Seventy-nine percent of registered Florida voters cast ballots in Tuesday's presidential election. That tops the 77% who turned out to vote four years ago but is still shy of the state's 1992 record turnout of 83%.
Across the greater Tampa Bay region, most counties saw a bump in voter turnout between 2020 and 2024 with the exception of Hardee and DeSoto counties.
At 62%, Hardee County had the worst turnout rate in the state on Nov. 5. DeSoto County had the second-worst turnout rate and posted a 15% dip in turnout compared to 2020.
In the 10 counties making up the greater Tampa Bay region, there were 1.2 million voters registered with the Florida Democratic Party. Three in every four Democrat voters living in the Tampa Bay region, or 883,515 voters, cast ballots in the 2024 general election.
Still, a greater share of Republicans living in the Tampa Bay region turned out to vote.
Eighty-five percent — or one million of the 1.3 million voters — registered with the Florida GOP and living in the Tampa Bay region cast votes.
With more than 50% of voters registered with the Florida GOP, the reddest counties in the Tampa Bay region are Hardee and Highlands counties. The largest share of Democrat voters are registered in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, according to Sept. 2024 data posted by the Florida Division of Elections.
Voter registration and turnout data shows the number of people who cast ballots, but it does not show who people vote for or how they vote on particular issues.
People who aren't registered with a political party make up between 23% to 28% of voters living across the greater Tampa Bay region in 2024, according to election data. The biggest group of non-party affiliated voters live in Hillsborough County, with 28% of registered county voters, followed by Pasco County with 27%. Statewide, 26% of voters aren't registered to a political party.
An analysis by WUSF shows that Democrat voters registered in counties across the Tampa Bay region turned out to vote in greater numbers in Tuesday's election compared to four years ago. The bluest counties in the region, including Pinellas and Hillsborough, posted 2% increases in voter turnout, but the largest jumps, at 13%, were shared by Polk and Sarasota counties.
Republican voters in Polk County also topped the turnout charts, with a 20% jump increase in voter turnout compared to 2020. Republican voter turnout in Sarasota County also dipped 11% down from nearly 96% in 2020.
