Voter Turnout In Florida May Set Record

January 29, 2008 · Filed Under Politics

Nearly one million Floridians have already cast early and absentee ballots in the state’s primary, a sign that moving up the date of the presidential primary will likely yield a record turnout on Tuesday.

The last time there was a contested presidential primary on both the Republican and Democratic sides, only about 19 percent of Florida voters, or 1.34 million, cast ballots. But numbers assembled by the political parties show that more than 988,000 people had voted by Sunday.

And thousands more voted Sunday afternoon in the seven Florida counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward, that were still conducting early voting. Lines at some early voting sites in South Florida snaked around buildings and stretched out onto sidewalks.

It’s also worth noting that this will be the last time voters in Florida will use touch screen voting machines. With the exception of disabled voters, all future voting will be done via paper ballot.

-Chris Jones