Nearly 2.8 million votes cast for General Election

The first weekend of early voting being available in every Florida county pushed the number of votes cast for the Nov. 3 election towards 2.8 million, more than 20 percent of the turnout in the prior midterm election in 2022. While most counties started offering the in-person option at the start of last week, it is mandatory for all 67 counties from Saturday until Oct. 31. As of Monday morning, 1.38 million Floridians used early voting, including just over 600,000 registered Republicans, 505,000 registered Democrats and 242,000 without a party designation. Another 34,000 people registered with a third party also voted in person at an early voting location. Meanwhile, 1.4 million mail-in ballots have been cast, with the party designations for these votes flipped. Registered Democrats have returned 604,000 vote-by-mail ballots to just over 500,000 by Republicans. Another 265,000 Floridians without a party designation and 34,000 third party voters have voted by mail. Overal